


change the currents of our lives

by amtrak12



Series: change the currents [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon Rewrite, Companion Solidarity, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, POV Rose Tyler, Pre-Season 12 Era, it took 12 years folks but I finally gave Rose the happy ending she deserves, rating is for sexual content in chapter 10 and some language, season 4 era, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:00:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26044627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amtrak12/pseuds/amtrak12
Summary: Even with the aid of the dimension cannon, it's a long and winding road for Rose to find the Doctor. When the timelines shift on her, the road becomes even longer.A season 4 AU that leverages the future to change the past and reunites Rose with the Doctor for good. Features, Nine, Thirteen, & Ten, and a very human, very mortal Rose Tyler.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: change the currents [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1899652
Comments: 23
Kudos: 143





	1. Wrong Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> While a S4/Journey's End rewrite has been cooking in the back of my mind since 2008, it wasn't until this year when I read At Childhood's End by Sophie Aldred (A Thirteen & Ace book I cannot recommend enough) that the solution finally came together. 
> 
> In her book, Sophie Aldred -- who played Ace in Classic Who -- gave her character the ending and future Ace deserved. In that same vein, I have given Rose Tyler the ending and future I believe she deserves: a future where she gets to live out the rest of her life by the Doctor's side. This fic is both a love letter to the canon I adore and a massive rewrite of that canon. Because this is Doctor Who and the official rules say we can do whatever we want ;) I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Bonus! Because I recently recovered my vintage 2007-2009 collection of Doctor Who fanvids, I have selected key lyrics from them for each of the chapters and then tracked down/created streaming links so they won't be lost to the ages. They were originally all downloaded from dwfanvids community on LiveJournal. If you have current links for the original creators or you are the original creators, let me know so I can update the links!

The first thing Rose Tyler saw when the flash of the dimension cannon faded from her eyes was a person with slate blue skin and round black eyes adjusting the display in a shop window. She wasn’t on Earth, then. Her eyes scanned down the street. The place was surprisingly busy given the evening sky -- thankfully busy. Rose wasn’t the only human-looking person out and about so she’d be able to blend in while she searched. Knowing this wasn’t Earth would help Torchwood’s calculations, but it would be even better if she could find a year. 

She checked her watch. Torchwood granted her five minutes for every jump. Five minutes to get the lay of the land and contact them with an update or she would be pulled back. But time passed differently between universes. Five minutes for Torchwood might not be five minutes here.

Under her breath, she counted ten seconds. Her watch showed fifteen. One and a half times conversion. Home. A thrill ran through her chest at the realization. Even if it wasn’t Earth, even if it wasn’t anywhere close to the 2000s, she was at least in the right universe again.

She texted the word ‘home’ to Mickey so Torchwood could adjust their timers. No use getting pulled after only three minutes. If she was home, Rose was going to have her full five. 

Cautiously, Rose began walking in the direction she was facing. She followed the pace of the crowd and stayed alert for any identifying features or technology. The buildings looked commercial with signs plastered on every surface advertising wares or services -- or so she inferred by the regular flow of people in and out of the doors. Rose couldn’t read any of the signs, of course. Not anymore. Her heartache over this was so familiar by now, it didn’t slow her from her mission. 

The window signs were made of paper, she noted. The shop names were either painted on a wooden sign or the building directly. Something thick and string-like ran from building to building, but the evening lighting was too dim for Rose to make out if they were ropes or cables or something else entirely. 

Not for the first time, Rose wished the Tardis had used subtitles instead of swapping alien languages for English. Perhaps then she could recognize the writing she was seeing on the buildings. As it was, she couldn’t be sure which dots and lines were letters and which were numbers.

Four minutes left. She wasn’t going to waste this trip. There had to be a clock or a calendar somewhere. Maybe a wristwatch on one of the tourists? Because the customers eagerly filing in and out of the shops were certainly tourists. One particularly energetic group alone was made up of at least six species by Rose’s count. Yet every sign utilized the same style of lettering which meant these people shared a common language.

Common language. Tourist hub. Interplanetary at the minimum because the Doctor had said once that a planet never evolved more than two sentient species at the same time. Unless she was on the opposite end of the universe, this had to be far into her Earth’s future. Some of these people looked too human to not have descended from Earth.

Some shopkeepers called out to the passersby, presumably shouting bargains and other enticements. Rose had a version of psychic paper in her pocket (Torchwood developed) to pull out if she had to. It’d get her around the translation issue in a pinch, but it wasn’t useful for prolonged conversations. Thankfully, the shop keepers weren’t pushy, and no one tried to stop her.

The shoppers, on the other hand, exhibited all of the worst traits of tourists. The larger the group, the less they cared about taking up the walkway. One group of seven, all a full head taller than the rest of the crowd, barreled down the street against the flow of traffic. Someone’s elbow caught Rose’s rib as they passed, and she was shoved into an a-frame sign. She grimaced. She couldn’t be sure the elbow was on purpose -- wherever those tourists were from, they sure had long, spindly limbs -- but it still hurt. When the group had passed, she squatted down and set the sign back upright.

 _Deoliv Exclusive!_ the sign proclaimed. She stared at it curiously. Deoliv. Deoliv. That seemed familiar.

Wait a minute, she could read that.

“Are you alright?”

Rose startled at the voice and looked up to see a shop worker frowning back at her.

“Yeah,” she stammered, both an answer and a question.

“Sure you’re not hurt?” the worker gestured towards the shop door. “You can come inside and rest if you need to.”

English. She was definitely hearing English.

And the worker was waiting on an answer.

“No, I’m fine. Thanks,” Rose said. She glanced down at the sign again. Yep, still in English too.

She began to back up into the street. “Sorry about your sign.”

The shop worker brushed her off with reassurances and a few choice words about rude tourists. Rose could understand every word, but she’d stopped listening. Her eyes were scanning the street again as she walked. English, English, English -- every sign was suddenly in English. What had happened? Had she crossed into the English district without realizing it?

No, of course she hadn’t. By the time humans had caught up to this level of interplanetary travel, English had died and evolved so many times that the human languages would be unrecognizable to a London shop girl from the 2000s. Which meant….

“Doctor.”

Rose searched the street again, ignoring the signs this time and focusing instead on the alleyways, the nooks and crannies, anywhere to park the Tardis.

Because he was here. Somewhere on this planet, in this time, the Doctor was here.

“Doctor?” Rose called out before rushing further up the street. “Doctor?”

Keeping a low profile no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered was finding him. She turned right at an intersection.

“Doctor? Shit, no.” Rose glanced down as her watch beeped the five minute warning. No, no, no, no. Torchwood couldn’t pull her back. Not yet.

She shot off a quick text to Mickey. _Doctor is here. I’m looking._ He’d want a call soon for more information, but it’d buy her time. They won’t pull her out immediately.

“Doctor!”

“You’ve been gone two minutes. What are you shouting down the street for?”

Rose’s heart stopped. It couldn’t be.

“Nice jacket by the way. So what happened? Jack already get himself arrested?”

Rose turned around. The Doctor, with his shaved hair and blue eyes and leather clad arms folded across his chest, stood before her. She didn’t need a Time Lord’s senses for her mind to scream at her, wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Wrong Doctor.

His relaxed and smug expression hardened when he saw her face. “What are you doing here?”

His voice had hardened too, but god that Northern accent still made her heart sing. She hadn’t heard it in ages. She’d never thought she’d hear it again.

“How are you here?” The Doctor said before suddenly cursing -- something clever and colorful, Rose was sure, but the Tardis had never translated his curses. His eyes searched the street and shops beyond her. “Of course, I cross my own bloody timeline,” he muttered.

“You’re not there,” Rose said. “It’s just me.”

The Doctor swung back around, eyes piercing hers. “You’re on your own?”

Rose nodded.

“How did you get to Deoliv on your own?”

“Day-liv?”

Hearing the name said out loud triggered the recognition that had evaded her earlier. Deoliv. Perpetual twilight due to heavy cloud cover. Considered a novelty planet in the Methuphus Republic thus the heavy tourist presence. She and Jack had spent the day here exploring and shopping followed by an evening cheering too loudly at a concert they’d stumbled across. Their voices had been shot the next day.

“I remember this trip,” Rose said. “You refused to come out with us. You stayed in the Tardis the entire time….”

Rose returned the Doctor’s stare. Why had he stayed in the Tardis?

“We need to talk,” the Doctor said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _your face, your eyes are burnt into me  
>  you save me, you gave me just what I need  
> _  
> (Crashed by Daughtry)
> 
> [Vintage Nine/Rose vid from 2010 reuploaded on YouTube here.](https://youtu.be/B7kyeKrZ_IM)


	2. Help Offered and Accepted

The Tardis was just as Rose remembered it. Then again, it had never been any different. The sense of wrong still shouted through her brain, though, and she lingered near the entrance.

“Start at the beginning,” the Doctor demanded, already moving to the center console. “Why are you alone?”

“I can’t say.”

“How did you get here?”

“I can’t say.”

“Rose,” the Doctor huffed.

“You lectured me all the time about not changing the future,” Rose snapped. “And now you just expect me to tell you like there’s no repercussions?”

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t help me,” Rose said. “I didn’t mean to come here. I didn’t mean to cross our timeline.”

“Then what did you mean to do?” 

His voice was still hard, as hard as it was when she’d tried to save her dad, but the anger was missing. The edge of it didn’t cut her like it had that time.

He was worried.

Rose fought to explain without giving away too much. “I was looking for you, yes, but I didn’t mean to come here. I got the date wrong and went back too far.”

“How’d we get separated?”

“I definitely can’t tell you that.”

Rose forced herself to move. Her hand ached as she paced deeper into the room. When she flexed it, it felt stiff and her palm had a large pressure mark cut across it. She realized she had been clutching the railing of the Tardis like her life had depended on it.

“And you can’t call me to pick you up?”

Rose’s hand moved to the phone in her pocket. “It doesn’t work.”

She had tried it once, the first time she’d jumped into her own universe. But the call hadn’t connected. Number unavailable.

“The phone doesn’t work or the number?” When she didn’t answer, the Doctor added, “I could drop you back home. Once you’re in the right year, I can resync your phone. Let you call me.”

“You can?”

“Easy. You’d be able to call. I’d know where to pick you up, and if I’m late you can stay with your mum.”

Rose’s heart sank. Except her mum was still in the other universe. Rose had nowhere to go at the Powell Estate.

“It wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“It just… wouldn’t.”

“You do know only one of us gets to be cryptic, don’t you? And not to disappoint, but I called dibs on it centuries before you were born.”

“You can’t leave with the Tardis right now anyway,” Rose said. “Me and Jack are out there right now. You can’t just leave us behind, and you can’t bring us on board because you can’t have two of me in the same place.”

“Time Lord, remember? You and Jack won’t even know I was gone.”

“Right.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Just like my mum wouldn’t know I was gone? Oh no, wait. She spent a year thinking I’d been kidnapped and killed.”

“That was one slip.”

“No.” Rose stood firm. “You’re not leaving me even if it is to take a future me back home.”

The Doctor had his arms crossed again. Irritation flashed in his eyes, but no arguments followed. Because there were no arguments. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t help her.

Rose felt the weight of hope leaching from her. No matter how much she wanted him to help her, he couldn’t. Because he wasn’t the right Doctor and this wasn’t the right timeline.

“I should leave.” Her hands toyed with her phone, but her feet didn’t budge. Her eyes couldn’t even look to the door.

How was she supposed to leave? She wasn’t even supposed to see this him again, and now.... What if this was the closest she’d ever get to finding her way back home?

No, she couldn’t think like that. She’d found him once, so she could find him again. In fact, this trip was better than she could’ve ever hoped for. Back at Torchwood, they could categorize this timeline as the Doctor’s, and then cross-reference it against the others she’d already visited. They could narrow down the differences and be able to identify the Doctor’s other timelines. It would be easier to find him a second time.

Rose looked away now. Even took a step towards the door. “I really should leave before I mess everything up.” 

Her second step was halted by the Doctor’s voice. “I can timelock the memories. Whatever you tell me will get locked away when you leave, and I won’t remember until my timeline catches up to yours. No chance of changing the future.”

Rose looked back to him, her heart pounding. “You’ve never mentioned a timelock before.”

“It’s only relevant if I cross my own timeline. So unless I’m particularly negligent or some villainous force is out to end me across every point of existence, it doesn’t come up.”

“If you never use it, then how do you know it works?”

“It works,” the Doctor said with authority. “I won’t remember until I’m supposed to.”

She wanted to believe him. She wanted him to magically fix everything and then smugly boast ‘Time Lord’. Finding him was supposed to fix everything.

But this wasn’t just the Doctor’s future at stake. It was at least an entire year of her own memories at risk of changing -- or worse, disappearing. Every memory with the Doctor was precious, and she couldn’t stand the thought of losing any of them.

Rose shook her head. “I still shouldn’t risk it.”

The Doctor pushed himself away from the console and stalked towards her. “Rose, I may not know what happened to separate us or how you’ve been left hopping about the universe all on your own, but I’m not going to stand back and let it continue.” He loomed above her. “If you’re looking for home, I’ll get you there. If you’re looking for me, I’ll get you to him. But you have to let me help you.”

Rose sucked in a breath. He was so close to her, now. Closer than he had been in years, since Canary Wharf and that final moment when he’d tried to make her leave. But he wasn’t trying to send her away now. For once, he wasn’t sending her away.

“You know those are the same thing, right?” Hope held her heart in her throat as she answered. “You and home are the same thing.”

So many different shades of concern swam in his eyes, yet it was her own emotions that broke free. She swiped at the first tear. Breathed back the second, but when the Doctor reached for her with a gentle “Rose”, she gave in. She flung herself into his arms and allowed the scent of leather to surround her. Her hands held onto him with every ounce of strength she possessed. 

“Oh god, I’ve missed you,” she whispered.

The Doctor’s arms tightened against her back. His hugs had always been strong but quick before the regeneration, very few lingering -- but he lingered now. He gave no indication of wanting to be the first to end this hug.

“How long has it been?” he asked softly.

Three years. The answer sat on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t bear to speak it out loud. It had been three far too long years since she’d last seen him.

Rose cleared her throat and stepped back. Wiping off the tears that had fallen, she began to explain. “I’ve been working with this place called Torchwood. Humans, Earth, but alien tech. Most of it is scavenged and repurposed. We have this… well, we call it a dimension cannon. It can measure timelines, give you coordinates, and transport you through time and space, but-”

“It bounces you around worse than Jack’s wristband,” the Doctor finished. “I need to see this dimension cannon.”

“You can’t. It’s in… it’s back at Torchwood,” Rose said. She took a disk out of her pocket. “This is the receiver. It’s how they find me to pull me back.”

The Doctor plucked the disk from her and scanned it with his sonic screwdriver. His stoic concern flashed into open alarm. “Rose, this is worse than Jack’s vortex manipulator! This is an early prototype that pre-dates the Time Agency even being founded by several hundred years!”

“Guess that explains how I got off course, then,” Rose tried to joke.

“It’s a miracle you’re not dead.”

“It’s stable,” Rose insisted. “We didn’t use it as we found it. We’ve made modifications.”

“Modifications like traveling between parallel worlds?” the Doctor asked.

The pit of Rose’s stomach fell.

“How-?”

The Doctor held up the receiver disk. “This thing’s been through the void. That shouldn’t even be possible.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Where are you even jumping that you end up in parallel worlds? What were you aiming for?”

Rose didn’t answer. The Doctor stared. She could see the calculations pass behind his eyes, the dots connecting, conclusions forming, but he struggled with it. Like he didn’t want to believe the evidence. Rose had lived it, and still she couldn’t believe it.

“The dimension cannon isn’t supposed to work,” she finally said. “It was never going to work the way I wanted it --until it did. I’m using it to find you, but it’s not a solution. It works because something’s coming, something… something that’s breaking down the walls between universes, and I don’t know what it is or how to stop it. I just know I need to find you. The right you, in the right timeline.”

His long searching stares had always unnerved her. They felt like he was seeing right into the core of her and that she couldn’t hide. It had been intriguing sometimes, as well. Because no one had seen her as thoroughly as the Doctor, and she’d been both eager and nervous to know what he saw. But now she knew too well all the memories and thoughts and feelings she wasn’t sharing. She knew exactly how much effort it was taking her not to find an empty room in the Tardis -- this Tardis -- and hide herself away until her timeline aligned once more with the Doctor’s. She wanted to give up, wanted to say ‘close enough’ so badly.

But the stars were going out. Parallel worlds were bleeding into each other. She had a feeling the past was just as vulnerable to that as the present.

The Doctor finally spoke. “What timeline were you aiming for?”

“2008.”

It was their best guess. In the parallel world, it was 2009. But if it took seven and a half minutes there for five to pass here, then three years would be only two.

“Do you have a copy of the timeline readings you used for coordinates?”

Rose shook her head. “But my phone still works to call Torchwood. I can call Mickey.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “And which Mickey’s that?”

“My Mickey. Who do you think?”

“You’ve been hopping to parallel worlds with Rickey?”

Rose ignored him and dialed her phone.

Mickey answered on the first ring. “Did you actually find him or are you being stubborn again?”

“No, I found him - sort of.”

“How do you sort of find the Doctor? Either you’re over the moon hugging and kissing him-”

“Mickey!”

“-or he’s not there. And since you’re calling me right now, I assume it’s that one.”

“He’s here. It’s just….” Rose glanced at the Doctor. She didn’t want to mention the regeneration that was still to come. “I’m on a planet called Deoliv.”

“What’s Deoliv?”

“A planet Jack and I once visited for a day.”

“Yeah but what is it? Have we found it before?”

“I have when the Doctor brought me here with Jack,” Rose repeated. “You know, Harkness? Captain Jack?”

“Wait, when did you travel with Jack again? I thought he stayed at that game station thing.”

“Exactly.”

It took Mickey another moment to catch on. “You’re with the old him. The one you first left with.”

“Yeah.” Rose watched the Doctor, but his face was masked with the barely restrained impatience he’d used to wear around Mickey. No sign if he could hear the other side of this conversation.

“So what does that mean? What’re you doing now?” Mickey asked.

“He’s going to help, but he needs our data on the timelines. Is there a way you can send that to my phone? Would that work?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I don’t think your phone can display it.”

The Doctor interrupted. “Is he arguing?”

“No,” Rose said. “He’s not sure my phone can display it.”

“I can loop it through the Tardis. Give it here.” The Doctor held out his hand.

Rose put the phone on speaker. “Mickey, the Doctor said he can loop the data through the Tardis to read it.”

“You’ll have to follow my instructions exactly.”

“Oh,” Mickey said. “Uh… hello.”

Rose closed her eyes. _Please don’t mention the regeneration. Come on, Mickey._

“Yes, fine. Hello,” the Doctor said with a roll of his eyes. “Can we get the timelines sorted out now?”

Mickey followed the Doctor’s instructions, and five minutes later, Torchwood’s data appeared on the Tardis screen. It wasn’t real-time data, but Mickey was able to send over the last 24 hours of saved measurements.

“Need anything else?” Mickey asked.

“Nope,” the Doctor said with his trademark dismissiveness.

Rose shot him a glare and thanked Mickey for his help.

“Just make sure you call me before you go popping off somewhere,” Mickey said before hanging up.

Still not looking up from his screen, the Doctor quipped, “I think your boyfriend’s gotten more clingy.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Rose said.

“Oh? When did that change?”

“Since I met you, honestly,” Rose said out loud, though she kept her gaze averted to the screen.

She wouldn’t have said it like that before, wouldn’t have been so direct. She didn’t know why she was saying it now. It wasn’t the Doctor’s assurances that he would forget this encounter after she left -- that felt more like an excuse for him to help her. It could’ve been that their separation had left her less willing to hold back, but that felt like a lie too. If she had found the Doctor wearing pinstripes and brown eyes, if she had found her Doctor, she didn’t know how much she would admit to. Because he had never admitted enough to her, and now two or three years had passed without her by his side.

The truth was, this Doctor, her past Doctor, was safer. She knew him. She knew where their relationship stood at this moment in time, and she knew where it was heading. It made it comfortable to talk to him even if she did have to tiptoe around future events.

Speaking of.

“It was that one.” Rose pointed to a line at the screen. The Doctor, who’d been staring at her since her casual confession, pulled his eyes back to where she pointed and paused the data.

“The moment you tried to jump to?”

“Yeah,” Rose said. “We’ve tried some others, but they don’t look like they’re marked here. It probably doesn’t matter. Half of them have already disappeared entirely from the readings, like they never existed.”

The Doctor squinted at the screen. “How do you get any useful coordinates from this? These readings are crude. They can’t tell you anything.”

“They can tell us something’s coming.” Rose pointed again, this time at the large glow on the right of the screen. All spirals and branches of timelines fed into it.

“A convergence,” the Doctor said.

“A convergence of the end of the universe, apparently,” Rose said. “Look, there’s nothing after. It’s like time just stops.”

“It just means the future is in flux. Anything could happen depending on what happens in that convergence.” The Doctor frowned at the screen. “If this wasn’t so rudimentary, we’d be seeing infinite timelines flowing out from it.”

“Like the shifting timelines flowing into it?” Rose leaned over him to control the display. She restarted the graphs and let the data be read at normal speed. “They’re constantly changing. We can’t keep up with them.”

“Well, what did you expect? I’ve told you before the past is just as much in flux as the future. Very few points in time are actually fixed.”

“Yeah but do they change like that?” Rose said, gesturing to the screen.

The readings flew by in a whirlwind of twisting, twirling, spiraling lines that collided and blurred and divided so quickly it was impossible for the human eye to track the progression. It didn’t show infinite timelines, but there were millions upon millions of them and all of them changing around a thousand times a second.

“They didn’t start out that way,” Rose explained. “When we first powered on the dimension cannon, the past was calmer and future timelines existed. Then, the conversion appeared and it started reading this universe as well as ours. The future disappeared, but the past was still consistent. Changing, but readable. I managed to make it to Earth in 2008. I couldn’t find you, though, and while I was gone, the readings started going wild. I haven’t been able to make it back to 2008 since.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrow at her.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Rose said. “All I did was watch some tiny aliens be beamed up into the sky. Then, a woman told me something about a bin for some reason, and that was it. I came back.”

“Maybe it was a very important bin,” the Doctor said, though his tone was skeptical. He frowned back at the screen. “You’re right though. The past isn’t supposed to look like that.”

“Is it the convergence? Is whatever happens at that point strong enough to affect both the past and the future?”

“Most likely, but I’m not convinced it’s the only influence.”

“What do you mean?” Rose asked.

“You said the convergence existed before the readings ran amuck. They didn’t happen at the same time. That suggests there’s something else going on here.”

Rose held up her hands. “I swear, I didn’t touch or say anything when I jumped. I’m careful with that.”

“Earlier, you were shoving over tourists while shouting for me,” the Doctor said.

Rose corrected, “I’m very careful when I don’t know beyond a doubt that you’re nearby.”

“How did you know I was here?” the Doctor asked.

Rose hesitated and then said, “The Tardis started translating for me. I could suddenly read all the signs and understand what people were saying.”

The alarm was back on the Doctor’s face. “You’re traveling to alien worlds without a translator?”

“Well, I don’t know they’re alien worlds until I get there.”

“You need a translator, Rose!”

“But you can help with that,” Rose said. “That’s what you’re doing, right? You’re going to help me find the right time and place to find you and then everything will be okay?”

The Doctor looked at her for a long moment. Then, he turned away and pulled up a floor grate.

The fear returned immediately. “What are you doing?” Rose asked.

“The Tardis timeline readings will be far more accurate.” The Doctor pulled up a second grate and then dropped inside. “We won’t be guessing like your Torchwood’s been doing. If I’m giving you coordinates, they’re going to be exact.”

Rose exhaled with a smile. He was helping. Of course, he was. “So, what are you digging around in the wires for?”

“I’ve got to reconnect the scanner.”

Rose folded her arms. “Your time machine’s ability to scan timelines has been disconnected? Is that why we never landed where we were supposed to?”

The Doctor poked his head out of the floor. “I didn’t disconnect the navigation system! Just the system that observes. I don’t like knowing what’s going to happen. More fun that way, don’t you think?” Without waiting for an answer, he tossed a bundle of cables to her. “Here. See if you can untangle that while I work on this one.”

Rose frowned at the twisted mess of cable she was now holding. “How long ago did you disconnect the observational system?”

“Couldn’t say. Probably about five minutes after I stole the Tardis,” the Doctor said, casually.

Rose paused. The Doctor didn’t look up from the knotted cable he was trying to loosen.

He’d never mentioned the Tardis was stolen before. Of course, she’d never asked. She’d just assumed every Time Lord had had one, and that was that. But if he’d stolen it…. Huh.

Rose wondered if the Doctor was also finding it easier to talk to a removed-from-time version of herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _the broken locks were a warning  
>  you got inside my head  
> tried my best to be guarded  
> I'm an open book instead_  
> (Broken by Lifehouse)
> 
> [Vintage Ten/Rose fanvid reuploaded to YouTube here](https://youtu.be/ppz4pGkgcX4)


	3. Nine's Goodbye

They settled into a comfortable silence. The cables the Doctor had pulled out were well and truly knotted. It took most of even the Doctor’s ‘superior’ concentration to begin undoing them, and there wasn’t much focus left for conversation.

While she worked, though, Rose did find her mind wandering to her surroundings. The Tardis hummed in the back of her mind just like it had before. When she’d first come on board, she’d assumed the humming was machinery to keep the ship running. Then, she’d learned the Tardis was psychic and she’d warily wondered if the hum actually was audible or if the sound existed solely in her head. The issue had ceased to matter before she’d learned the answer. Now, the hum was a soothing balm for her soul. It was proof she was home -- for the moment at least.

The last knot refused to budge, so she lifted her gaze to give her eyes a rest. She followed the gently curving struts up to the ceiling, examined the metal loft that was currently empty but had sometimes been used to store boxes of odds and ends during her time in the Tardis. The grated floor was already making her bum ache from sitting on it, but even that discomfort was soothing and familiar.

She didn’t want to leave. But with the Doctor’s help, she wouldn’t be away for long. Just one more trip and she’d be home for good.

“Doctor,” Rose said, a new thought crossing her mind. 

The Doctor hmm’d for her to continue.

“How did you know it was really me?”

“When?” The Doctor’s brow furrowed as he used his sonic screwdriver on the knotted cable. Rose wasn’t sure what setting was ‘loosen knots’, but it didn’t look to be helping much.

“Earlier when I found you,” Rose said. “I could’ve been anyone: a body-swap, a clone, someone trying to manipulate you.”

“Pretty poor job at manipulating me, what with all your insistence that I not help you,” the Doctor said.

“Reverse psychology.”

The Doctor scoffed. “That only works on humans.”

“That’s just it,” Rose said, “How did you even know I was human, let alone that I was actually me?”

The Doctor put down his knot. “I could sense the time anomaly. You were out of place, and only the real Rose Tyler is jeopardy-friendly enough to be in the wrong timeline.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Like you can talk. You get into just as much trouble as I do.”

“Yes, but I can also get myself out of trouble,” the Doctor said.

“Well, so can I.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

Rose narrowed her eyes. “I’m serious, you know.”

“No, I know you are,” the Doctor said. “I know you are completely capable of looking out for yourself. Of course, you’re also hopping about the universe without a translator, so my judgement might be off.”

Rose opened her mouth to argue, but the Doctor cut her off.

“Speaking of,” he placed the receiver for the dimension cannon on the floor beside him. “That’s all fixed. I loaded up a translator so if the worse comes to pass, you won’t be stranded on an alien planet where you don’t speak the language.”

Rose picked up the receiver. “When did you do that?”

“When I got too annoyed to look at this cable anymore.” The Doctor glared down at his knot that was only half undone.

“Thank you.” Rose smiled. He was always looking out for her. “But the plan is still to find you in the right timeline.”

“Of course it is,” the Doctor said. “But a back-up plan never hurt anyone.”

Rose supposed it made sense. He was the one to create Emergency Program One, after all.

“As long as we’re still full steam ahead on Plan A,” Rose said. “Here, I’ve got something for you, too.”

She held out her successfully untangled cable. The Doctor stared at it.

“When did you finish that?”

Rose grinned. “Apparently, when you were preoccupied making back-up plans.”

“Nicely done,” the Doctor said, sounding genuinely impressed. He took it and then passed over his own cable. “Now, see if you can finish that one as well while I start reconnecting the system.”

Rose eyed up the half-finished mess in her hand. “Did you melt this?”

“I might have used the wrong setting on it, yes.”

“You completely fused it to itself!”

“And yet, I still got half of it unknotted. No congratulations on that, I see.”

“Unbelievable.” Rose stood up and dragged the cable with her to the section of flooring where the Doctor kept his toolbox. She lifted the grate and fished around inside for a knife or something else sharp enough for her to slice through rubber insulation.

“Oh sure, make yourself at home.”

“Useless,” Rose said. “The great almighty Time Lord, yet you can’t even work a sonic screwdriver.”

Though she didn’t look at him, she could still see the Doctor grinning at her insults. He might have continued to needle her, except at that moment, the Tardis phone rang.

They both looked to the phone, both confused for a second on why it would be ringing. Then, the Doctor recovered and answered.

“Hello? … Ah, Rose. Having a good time?”

His eyes flicked over to Rose sitting in the Tardis, then flicked away. It was probably weird for him to talk to one version of her while another sat four feet away. Meanwhile, Rose stared in open fascination. That was her younger self on the phone with him right now. She didn’t remember what she had said (and couldn’t hear her side of the conversation now), but she remembered she’d been aiming to get him outside and exploring the planet with her and Jack.

“Can’t I’m busy with repairs to the Tardis. … No, nothing’s broken. They’re just routine repairs. … No, that doesn’t mean they can wait. Proper maintenance is the only way to avoid catastrophic failures.”

That all checked out with Rose’s memories. He’d resisted her pleading, though he wasn’t making any convincing arguments.

“Great, you and Jack have fun with that. … Because I already said I’m busy. … Rose! I don’t have time for this. You and Jack continue playing tourist and don’t hurry back. I get more done when I have peace and quiet.”

Rose winced as he hung up the phone. That part she remembered too well.

“You’ve always been annoyingly persistent, you know that?” the Doctor said. Guilt and irritation warred across his face.

“She’s going to come back mad at you,” Rose warned.

“Yes, well, I think she’ll understand one day.”

Rose held his stare. The phone call had cracked whatever facade of normal they’d been wearing, and it was obvious that not only was the Doctor still worried about the future that Rose was currently living through -- he was terrified.

Slowly, she nodded. “Yeah, I understand.”

“Good. You finished with that?”

Rose nodded again and brought the cable over to him. “I can’t say it’s as good as new, but at least it’s functional again.”

“Functional is all I need,” the Doctor said. “Time to finish this up.”

It took no time at all for the Doctor to hook up the scanner. So little time in fact, Rose wondered if he had perhaps knotted the cables on purpose whenever he had disconnected it.

“There,” the Doctor said to the newly displayed Tardis readings.

Rose squinted and leaned towards the screen. The readings didn’t look any more detailed than Torchwood’s readings. They just looked more squiggly.

“And what exactly is ‘there’?” she asked.

“Me in the future like you’re looking for, and your next destination.”

“Really, just like that? How do you know that’s the right moment?”

“The timelines you see here are all just possibilities,” the Doctor said. “Our actions and decisions change the possibilities of the future. I took your timeline and followed the possible future where you find me until it met up with my timeline.”

“So I’ll be skipping ahead,” Rose said. “Cutting out the search and jumping straight to finding you. But wouldn’t skipping time then change the timeline because certain events didn’t happen?”

“Deep question.” The Doctor raised his eyebrow. “But you won’t be skipping anything. Your timeline already includes this you finding me which makes the next step in the sequence me sending you to the right moment in time.”

“So this is the legitimate version of cheating timelines.”

“It’s not cheating if you’re a Time Lord.”

Rose grinned. “Lord? Nah, you’re just a show off.”

She looked at the screen again. She watched the timelines intricately swirl and dance and intertwine with each other.

“You’re really going to be there?” she asked. “Just one more jump and that’s it?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said. “I wouldn’t send you unless I was one hundred percent certain.”

“Good.”

For the first time in three years, the knot in her chest loosened. She was going home. Finally, she was going home.

“Oh, I need to tell Torchwood where I’m going.”

“I’ll route them the coordinates through your phone,” the Doctor said.

Mickey didn’t try to question or fight her when she called. He confirmed they’d received the coordinates, confirmed the dimension cannon was ready to use, and said he’d fend off her mother when she’d call to complain about Rose not being home for dinner. Absolutely nothing about whether this would actually work or whether the Doctor knew what he was doing. Mickey just trusted that he did. Sometimes Rose had to marvel at just how much they had all changed since she’d met the Doctor.

“All set, then?” the Doctor asked when she hung up.

“Yeah. Takes a couple of minutes for the dimension cannon to warm up, though.”

It gave her just enough time to say goodbye. The thought brought her up short. She’d never said goodbye to him before. She didn’t know how to. Sometimes, after he had regenerated, she would wish she had gotten to say it, that she’d gotten to tell her first Doctor goodbye -- but then she’d dismissed the thought as silly. Why would she need to tell him goodbye when he was still right there? 

Why indeed.

“Just one little favor to ask of you,” the Doctor said brightly before Rose could get her emotions into any sort of order. “When you get there, give whatever face I’m wearing next a good hard slap for letting you get separated from me.”

The world fell out beneath her feet.

“What?”

The Doctor, who had so cheerfully asked for that favor, now wore a grim expression. “I know I regenerate. And if you’re still with me, then it happens a lot sooner than I would like.”

“But… I didn’t… I never said,” Rose argued.

“You knew this was the wrong timeline the instant you saw me,” the Doctor said. His voice picked up a note of cheerfulness again. “And you can’t claim it was the wardrobe, because once I find something I like, I never change it.”

“Well, that much I know,” Rose teased, but her heart wasn’t in it.

He’d known the whole time he was going to die. She’d given it away without saying a damn word.

“It wasn’t your fault, though,” Rose said. “Why I got separated from you -- it wasn’t your fault.”

“It’ll always be my fault,” the Doctor said. Then, he clapped his hands together. “Now, I believe your two minutes are up. Have a safe trip home.”

But Rose hadn’t received a text from Torchwood yet, so she took the risk and jumped up to hug him, clinging tightly.

“Thank you,” she said into his neck. “For everything. I’ve never regretted one moment with you.”

It was her last chance to say goodbye. She wanted to look him in the eye for it, but as she pulled back, a different thought crossed her mind.

She kissed him.

It’s what Jack did -- will do -- on the game station, so why couldn’t she? She kissed him and lingered longer than Jack had (her Doctor). The Doctor didn’t fight her, didn’t freeze or pull away. Instead, his hands pressed against her back and drew her closer. Her throat squeezed shut as she fought not to surrender completely.

She didn’t want to leave. She had to, of course -- if for no other reason than to prevent reapers from consuming everyone in sight once her younger self tried to return to the Tardis - but god she didn’t want to.

Rose pulled back. Reluctantly, she stepped away so Torchwood would have a clear shot to transport her. The way the Doctor watched her, she suspected he didn’t want her to leave either.

She tried again to say it, that one terrible little word she’d never said before to him, but it wouldn’t come out. His eyes were so blue, even at a distance, even in the orange-yellow glow of the Tardis.

“I’ll see you soon,” she said instead.

The Doctor nodded, just once. Rose noted how he could make himself smile even while dying, but he couldn’t bring himself to smile now.

The warning text arrived. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket, but she didn’t bother reading it. She could feel the energy of the dimension cannon building already. Five seconds and she would be gone.

Four seconds.

“Be careful,” the Doctor said.

Rose forced a smile of her own, for his sake. “I”ll find you. We’ll be alright.”

Two seconds.

One.

She snapped an image in her mind. Memorized every detail she could lay her eyes on. The way his leather jacket hung from his shoulders. The shape of his hairline, his ears, his nose. The cut of his chin, the comforting coolness of his eyes. The way the neck of his jumper dipped into that v that made her wish she’d sent her fingers exploring underneath before....

Gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _and it's strange how things change  
>  but not me wanting you so desperately  
> _  
> (Desperately by Michelle Branch)
> 
> [Vintage Doctor/Rose fanvid reuploaded to YouTube here](https://youtu.be/3dZpquZTuiA)


	4. Texas 2103

Rose squinted against the sudden influx of sunlight. She was on a street somewhere, paved but not well maintained. There were no cars to be seen, except for those parked along the curb. Still, Rose swiftly moved over to the sidewalk.

Everything looked familiar and yet just a shade off. The streetlamps had solar panels attached. The cars didn’t match any designs Rose had seen before. The architecture seemed very Earth, though. It wasn’t London by any stretch of the imagination, given it seemed to be a literal one street town. It didn’t look like any English villages either. It looked more like the small town Main Streets she had seen in American movies.

When she spotted the American flag waving from a pole, she smiled.

“I guess I didn’t need the translator after all,” she said.

So all the English signs she was seeing were really written in English. That was good. She was in the United States which was fine. Not Hawaii or a coastal town -- she couldn’t sense the ocean anywhere. She was likely somewhere in the middle of the country which was just _splendid_. She couldn’t even name the states in the middle of the country.

Of course, the exact state may not matter. She could’ve easily stumbled across a post-apocalyptic United States for all the activity that surrounded her. There wasn’t a single person around despite the broad daylight. Where was everyone?

More importantly, where was the Doctor?

The flag pole stood in front of a wide single story building, the kind that usually indicated a public space of some sort. The parked cars were centered with the building, as well, so Rose headed there first.

Time Travel 101 with the Doctor: follow the locals.

The door was unlocked. It opened to a simple entryway with halls branching left and right and a second set of double doors straight ahead. A bulletin board hung on the wall to her right. Rose spotted a calendar of town events posted there. Unless the post-apocalypse theory was true, the date was November 2103.

A voice carried through the double doors ahead. Rose crept towards it and quietly tried one of the handles. This door was also unlocked, so she pulled it open an inch to peek inside.

The room was packed. Adult humans of all ages sat in rows of chairs all facing away from the door. At the front of the room, stood a white man who seemed somewhere north of fifty years old. His hands rested on his hips in a way that pushed his suit jacket off his waist. He glared at the only other person Rose could see currently standing.

“It’s not time lost. It’s time gained,” that person was saying. They were also white, younger than the man. They had blonde hair which ended before reaching their shoulders and wore a silvery-grey coat with a navy hood. Rose presumed they were a woman from their voice, but the clothing and 22nd century date gave nothing away.

“A break in the work day is not time gained,” the man said. “I don’t care how you spin it. That’s a full fifteen minutes I’m not getting back.”

“First of all,” the blonde said. “We’re arguing for an hour. Not fifteen minutes. Second, it is absolutely time gained. If they spend their lunch break eating, they’ll be refueled to finish off the afternoon. Basic biochemistry! You eat food, food becomes energy, energy produces work. It may not be how every body works, but it is how human bodies work.”

The man pointed at her. “Nobody said it was for an hour!”

Pretty heated argument about a lunch break. Did all of these people work for the same company?

Rose wanted to slip inside to continue listening. There were some empty seats in the back. Everyone’s eyes were on the front, and while there were some fashion accessories and clothing items Rose didn’t recognize, there were also plenty of familiar pieces. Stained jeans, rumpled and worn shirts -- clothing of the working class, physical laborers. They may not look at her too strangely if her clothes were a century out of date. Unless they mistook her for a snob who only wore vintage, then they might have some snide remarks.

Worth the risk.

As the woman pointedly listed all the times the workers had explicitly stated their demands for a full hour lunch, Rose eased the door open.

It squeaked. Squawked really. Loud and clear and it echoed across the tiled floor and cinder block walls despite how many people filled the room.

Rose winced. Maybe…?

But no. Of course, not. Every person in the room swiftly turned around to look at her. The two up front cut off their arguing to stare as well.

“Hello,” Rose said with her most apologetic and disarming smile.

For the most part, people looked confused or curious about her presence -- except the woman up front. If her face had been a security system, then every alarm in the building would have been tripped.

“What are you doing here?” the woman demanded. Her tone had been annoyed when she’d been arguing for a lunch hour, but that was nothing compared to the ice she directed at Rose.

“Sorry,” Rose said. “I was just looking for someone. I didn’t realize this was a closed meeting.”

“You’re in the wrong place. You need to leave. Now.”

“Alright.”

Now, Rose was annoyed. Instead of leaving, she scanned the crowd, but she only managed to search for a second before another woman approached her.

“Sorry,” the woman said. “She means we’re in the middle of some important union negotiations for the quarry.”

Rose looked at her. The woman couldn’t have been any older than Rose which placed her on the younger end for this crowd. Her clothing wasn’t all that different from Rose’s either: jeans, shirt, jacket. Her black hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, and she had medium-brown skin that leaned golden in this interior lighting.

And she didn’t speak with an American accent. The blonde hadn’t either, Rose realized. Those were both British accents. Interesting.

“What quarry is that?” Rose asked.

The woman frowned. “The rock quarry. The one in town here.”

Ah, wrong question. Clearly, everyone in town knew the rock quarry, and she’d been pegged as an outsider.

“Right, of course,” Rose tried to recover. “Makes sense.”

“Tension’s a bit high with negotiations right now,” the woman said. “So, if you could just….”

“No problem,” Rose said. “Just, uh, one quick question before I go: is there anyone here called the Doctor?”

The woman blinked. “What?”

“The Doctor. He’d be about this tall.” Rose raised her hand up. “Brown hair that sticks up another couple of inches. White man, usually wears a pinstripe suit.”

The woman slowly shook her head. “Sorry, what doctor is this?”

But before Rose could answer, a hard shove collided with her arm.

“Ow!”

“I said leave,” the blonde woman said. “You don’t belong here.”

Rose had no idea how the woman had crossed the room that quickly. “I just have a question.” She tried to fight being pushed back into the entryway, but the woman’s grip was rough and Rose didn’t want to make a bigger scene than she already had. She switched to walking with the woman’s shoves instead. “Alright! I’m leaving.”

The woman released her at the exterior door, but still followed her outside. To ensure she didn’t sneak back inside, Rose assumed. Rose didn’t need to sneak back in, though. She could always wait outside the door until the meeting let out, and then scan the people as they left.

She took a couple of steps down the sidewalk. The woman didn’t go back inside.

“Look, I’m sorry for interrupting your meeting,” Rose said.

The woman’s anger faded to irritated bafflement. “How are you even here? What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean how?” Rose asked. “What, are Brits not allowed in America now? How can that be if you’re here?”

“We’re in Texas.”

“Is Texas not part of America anymore?”

The woman frowned. “No. I mean it is. I was just… pointing it out. To be specific in case you weren’t aware -- specificity is important, you know -- and that wasn’t even my question!”

The stumbling was odd, but at least it had lowered the territorial defensiveness.

“I really am sorry,” Rose said. “I was just looking for someone. I’m supposed to meet him here.”

The sun slipped past a rooftop to shine in Rose’s eyes. She squinted and her gaze drifted down. She noticed the other woman’s trousers. While they coordinated by matching her coat’s navy blue liner, they also ended several inches above her ankles. It was distracting and nearly as odd as the woman herself. Was that what passed for fashion in the 22nd century?

The woman recovered her defensive posture. “The person you’re looking for isn’t here. There’s nothing here, in fact. Just an overlord CEO I’m trying to talk down to benevolent -- or at least legally bind to human morals. I’m sorry I can’t help you further.”

There was a pause like Rose was expected to argue some more. Rose didn’t say anything.

“Now, go home,” the woman finished. As she turned to head back inside, her coat swished against her legs. The hem of it hung even with the hem of her trousers and almost made the fashion statement passable. Almost.

The door closed, and Rose stood on the sidewalk, alone.

There was more to this town than a badly run rock quarry. The Doctor had given her these coordinates himself. He had promised he’d be here. If her choice was to listen to a random (and rude) woman from 22nd century Texas or to listen to the Doctor, then Rose trusted the Doctor. She would stay right here where she was and wait for him.

She just hoped it wouldn’t be a long wait.

* * *

Hours later when the sun had set but the evening dark hadn’t yet taken hold, the union meeting let out. Rose stood from the patch of sidewalk she had claimed for herself and scanned the people pouring through the double doors. Some looked cheerful and optimistic, others tired and disgruntled. None of them were the Doctor.

Her heart fell.

Maybe he was still inside. Maybe he was chasing down some alien threat to the negotiations that no one here was even aware of yet. Maybe it was underground -- they did work for a quarry. That’d be like mining, wouldn’t it? Maybe there were caves beneath her feet right now and that’s where the Doctor was.

A minute behind the rest of the crowd, one last group of four came out. It was the two women Rose had spoken to earlier along with two men she hadn’t seen yet. One was a white man, older, grey hair. The other was a black man much younger, possibly younger than Rose, and his black hair shaved short. The group still seemed to be discussing details of the union negotiations and didn’t notice her.

Rose examined the men again. She kept her eye on facial expressions, body language, who was doing the most talking -- all while fighting down the fear creeping into her stomach.

No, he hadn’t regenerated. Those men weren’t him. They couldn’t be. The Doctor wouldn’t have sent her to a timeline where she was too late.

Everyone -- including these four stragglers -- were walking towards the same destination. Rose followed some distance behind. It only took a minute to learn where they were going. It was a cafe about four buildings down. The large front window showed a serving line inside and a dining room laid out like a cafeteria. An outdoor eating area was set up along the right side of the building, as well, and several people were already seated and eating. A strange sight for November, but then again the breeze didn’t feel biting. It didn’t even feel cool. That must be the difference between Britain’s climate and Texas’.

That last group of four split up. The men took off running for the cafe -- the younger one first, followed quickly by the older man shouting, “Hey, that’s cheating!” The rude blonde woman was pulled aside by one of the other quarry workers, which just left the second woman walking calmly alone to dinner.

Rose pushed forward and fell into step beside her.

“Hi.”

The woman jumped. When she saw Rose, she halted. “Oh. You’re still here.”

“Yeah,” Rose said, still aiming for disarming and winning. “I still have some unfinished business here, and I thought maybe you could help.”

“Why me?”

“You seemed nicer than the other one,” Rose said.

The woman whipped her head back to the blonde who was still occupied with work. Then she looked back to Rose. “Oh, well I don’t know how I could help you. I couldn’t help, actually. I can’t do anything for you. Sorry.”

She seemed nervous. Rose cut to the point.

“I’m just looking for my friend,” she said. “The man I described earlier? Tall, brown hair, brown suit, will happily talk your ear off about absolutely nothing, especially when he’s trying to get out of trouble -- have you seen him around?”

The woman thought for a moment. “I’m sorry, I don’t know anyone like that.”

“You haven’t seen him around town anywhere?” Rose asked. “Or, I don’t know, is there more to this town?”

During a walkabout earlier, Rose had found a few more streets than the one she’d landed on, but they had all led to residential houses. Beyond that it was just flat nothingness.

“Just the quarry,” the woman said.

“And what’s in the quarry?”

“Um, a large hole where they’ve cut out rock.”

“Yes, but are there any tunnels at the quarry? Any place to hide?” Rose asked. “Or, I don’t know, have you seen anything strange around like flashing lights or meteors falling from the sky or people acting weird?”

“Not until today,” the woman said.

For a split second, Rose’s hope let her believe she was on the right track -- there was an alien threat and she had simply beaten the Doctor here -- but then she realized the woman had meant _she_ was the weird occurrence.

“Right. Well, what about a blue box? A large blue box that says ‘Police’ across the top.”

“Yaz!”

They both looked towards the shout. The rude blonde had finally spotted Rose talking to her companion and looked none too pleased about it.

“She talked to me!” the woman called back. A silent scuffle of expressions followed, most of which Rose couldn’t read, but one point was abundantly clear.

“She really doesn’t like me,” Rose said.

“No, it’s not that,” the woman -- Yaz apparently -- said. “I’m just not supposed to be talking to you.”

“Why not?”

“Yeah, I’d like to learn that too.”

Now, the overlord CEO had found her too. Damn.

Rose fought to keep her face neutral as the man approached. His expression was searching, suspicious, and angry: defensive ready to switch to the offensive against anyone crossing his path. Union negotiations were not going in his favor.

“Hello,” Rose said, politely. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“No kidding,” the man said. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing trespassing?”

“Trespassing?”

“This town is private property.”

Rose frowned. “But it’s a town.”

“And it’s owned and operated by Obsidian Holdings,” the man said. “Now, who are? You better not be another damn unionizer.”

“Of course not,” the blonde woman said, suddenly standing between Rose and Yaz. She seemed to have a knack for popping up without notice. “Come on, Robbie. You can’t recognize a fellow company goon when you see one?” Then she interrupted herself. “Ooph, no I don’t like goon. What else can I use that still means company man without the gender?”

“Suck-up?” Yaz suggested.

“Yes, I like that one!” The woman turned back to the quarry CEO. “She’s a company suck-up just like you.”

“A suck-up?” Rose said to Yaz. Yaz averted her gaze.

The CEO frowned at Rose. “You don’t work for Obsidian.”

It wasn’t the cover she would’ve chosen, but since she was stuck without the Doctor for a little while longer, she might as well roll with it. “I’m a recent hire.”

“Yeah, she’s been brought in by your board as a legal observer,” the blonde woman said. “A lawyer to do all her lawyer-y manipulation on the contracts to keep you from having to fulfill any demands you concede to. Well, the union won’t stand for it! I want her out before midnight tonight.”

She stormed off with a whirl of her silver coat that likely felt more dramatic than it looked. With one last glance to Rose, Yaz fled too and finally headed into the cafe.

Robbie the CEO spat some curses about the women who had just left and then grumbled to Rose, “They could’ve brought you in sooner. The damn socialists have already kept the quarry shut for weeks.”

With a faux-sweet smile, Rose turned to the CEO. “I’m afraid the union has my role a bit twisted around. The board of directors brought me on to observe the workers, yes, but I’m also here to observe your behavior.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means watch what you say during these negotiations. Obsidian would like to remind you that if they get sued for defamation or harassment, they won’t hesitate to throw you to the wolves.”

The CEO’s anger flashed with neon lights now, but he fought down the curses tightening his jaw and waited until he had marched twenty feet down the road before letting his words fly. Bluff successful, Rose looked around for the blonde woman. She’d lied for her, and Rose wanted to know why.

She found her marching swiftly in the opposite direction of the cafe. Rose wasn’t sure if the woman simply wasn’t hungry or if she was attempting to make a statement about how unavailable she was to talk to. If it was a statement, Rose chose not to hear it.

“Hey,” she said as she caught up to the woman.

“Sorry, I don’t talk to corporate spies.”

“I don’t work for Obsidian and you know it,” Rose said. “Why’d you lie for me?”

“To make it easier for you to leave,” the woman said.

“Seems like you just made it easier for me to stay. Legal observer -- it’s a nice cover. Should get me into all sorts of closed meetings now.”

The woman finally stopped. “Why are you here?”

“Why are you?”

“I’m negotiating a union contract.”

“You don’t look like you work in a quarry.”

“Alright, if this is a crack at my legs being too short, I’m already aware of it and I’m finding ways to compensate.”

Rose raised her eyebrows. Then, she glanced down at the woman’s feet. “Looks like they’re too long for you, actually.”

“What?”

“Your trousers can’t reach your shoes.”

The woman looked down at her legs. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Just can’t imagine that being in fashion anywhere.”

“They’re comfortable,” the woman defended.

“Suit yourself,” Rose said, fighting down her amusement.

The woman recovered quickly from the tangent and released a sigh. “Look, you don’t belong here. Just leave, please. Before it’s too late.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s a threat for all of us,” the woman said. “I know you’re looking for your friend, but I swear he isn’t here and he isn’t coming. You need to look somewhere else.”

“What’s your name?” Rose asked.

The woman was silent for a long moment. Finally, she said, “Smith. Jenny Smith.”

“I’m Rose Tyler. And I have it on good authority that my friend is coming here to this time and to this place.”

“What authority?”

“The best,” Rose said. “So good luck with whatever game you’re playing here, but I’m not leaving. You’ll just have to work around me.”

She walked off first this time, leaving Jenny Smith to stand and (hopefully) gape behind her.

“This isn’t a game, Rose!”

Rose walked backwards for a step so she could reply, “I’ll see you around, Jenny. Thanks for the cover story.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I never knew you  
>  but now I'm haunted by your past  
> how long will this last_  
> (Just Abuse Me by Air Traffic)
> 
> [Original YouTube upload of vintage Multi-Companion fanvid here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI5OKQJrAGI)


	5. Making Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _I got tired of waiting, wondering if you were ever coming around  
>  my faith in you was fading, when I met you on the outskirts of town  
> _  
> (Love Story by Taylor Swift)
> 
> [Vintage Doctor/Rose fan vid reuploaded to YouTube here](https://youtu.be/k6icmE5YacM)

Mickey called her an hour later.

Rose had bought some supplies with a company credit card and settled into an unused flat above an electronics repair shop: both perks of pretending to work for the quarry owners (and terrifying the CEO enough to believe he’d get fired for crossing her). She plugged her phone into her new charger and answered.

“Oh good, you are alive,” Mickey said. “Nice of you to let us know. We’ve only been sitting around twiddling our thumbs for the past twelve hours.”

“Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

“And that’s all the details I need to hear about that.”

Rose sighed. “Busy looking for the Doctor.”

“It took you twelve hours to track him down?”

“Eight, remember? And I haven’t found him yet.”

When Mickey stayed silent for too long, Rose braced herself.

“You haven’t found the Doctor, yet?”

“No, but-”

“How did you wait eight hours to tell us that?”

“Because up until half an hour ago I was still looking,” Rose said. “And I wasn’t entirely unsuccessful. There’s definitely something weird going on with this rock quarry.”

“Hold on.”

“What do you mean hold on?”

“Just hang on a minute… okay, I just checked the coordinates a fourth time and you definitely landed where you were supposed to.”

“I figured as much.”

“No, you didn’t. You just assumed,” Mickey said.

Rose stuck out her tongue at him even if he couldn’t see it all the way in another universe.

“But if you landed where you were supposed to, and the Doctor isn’t there, then….”

“Then what?” Rose demanded.

“Then, did he actually give you the right coordinates?”

“What, you think he sent me on some wild goose chase just to get rid of me? Is that it?”

“No, I think he might have gotten it wrong.”

“He didn’t get it wrong,” Rose said. “The coordinates are accurate.”

“The date too? Cause we all know he’s gotten that wrong before.”

“Look, I might be here too early, but that doesn’t mean he messed up the date,” Rose argued. “He’ll probably show up tomorrow. Like I said there’s something weird going on with this quarry. This whole town is built to serve it, yet the quarry itself is completely fenced off. There’s no gate, no gap, no door. No way in or out. What if the union negotiations are just a convenient excuse for something to use the quarry without being caught?”

“Yeah, and what if the Doctor doesn’t show up tomorrow?” Mickey asked.

Rose went cold. “He’ll show up.”

“You don’t know that.”

“He promised me.”

“He’s made you a lot of promises, doesn’t mean he keeps them.”

Mickey sighed immediately after he said it.

“I didn’t mean that.”

Rose unstuck her tongue. “Yes, you did.”

“Well, I didn’t mean for it to be that harsh. I’m sorry.”

Rose picked at a scuff in the table.

“This is the longest you’ve been gone on a jump,” Mickey said. “Which was fine when we thought the Doctor was there, but if he’s not…. I’m not sure how long we can keep authorization to have you out.”

“You’re not pulling me back,” Rose said. “I’m too close to finding him. He’s right here.”

“He’s not right there, and that’s the problem.”

Rose gritted her teeth. “But he will be. We checked the timelines. This is where I’m supposed to be.”

There was a long silence. Finally, in a more even, business-like tone, Mickey said, “Okay. We’re switching to the daily protocol. Every 24 hours at 8 pm local time, you’ll call us with an update. That’s every 36 hours for us. If there’s a sudden change, you call immediately.”

“Right,” Rose agreed.

“What time is it there?”

Rose checked her phone. “9:13 pm.”

“Synced,” Mickey said. “We’ll expect your first call in 22 hours and 47 minutes your time, and then every 24 hours after.”

“Understood.”

“And Rose, I don’t want to say it and I know you don’t want to hear it, but… it’s just as likely you’ve arrived too late.”

Rose’s stomach twisted. “You’re right, I don’t want to hear it.”

“But you still need to consider it. You said they’re doing union negotiations. That’s the sort of thing that only happens after the Doctor swept in to save the day.”

“This isn’t like that. He’s still coming,” Rose said. “I’m not too late.”

“Fine. Talk to you in 22 hours and 46 minutes, then.”

“Bye.”

Rose hung up the phone. Silence enveloped the flat. The windows were pitch black outside. There wasn’t enough light from the street to fight the flat’s lighting. A thin layer of dust coated most surfaces: an indication of how long the flat had gone unused.

Rose didn’t think about how she may have to dust the place. She didn’t think about how many clothes she might need to buy, or if company privileges extended to making use of the cafe for meals. She didn’t think about how long she would need to stay, because she wouldn’t be staying long enough for any of it to matter.

Because the Doctor was coming. He’d find her. Anything else was temporary.

* * *

On the second day in Texas in her home universe, Rose learned that the foursome she noticed the night before were a team of independent mediators from Britain working on behalf of the union. The odd Jenny Smith led the group. Yasmin Khan, known as Yaz, was the quieter though more friendly woman. The young black man’s name was Ryan Sinclair, and the older white man was named Graham O’Brien. They had been there for two weeks, and the rock quarry’s CEO considered them socialist pains in the ass. His view was certainly biased. Rose didn’t think an hour lunch break, living wages, paid time off, and lowering the prices of the town’s goods and services to match the outside world were unreasonable demands.

She learned the tall, tarp covered fence around the quarry was to both prevent Obsidian Holdings from bringing in outside workers and to prevent any union members from caving into pressure from the company. The fence wouldn’t be removed until new contracts were signed with the union. No one remembered seeing anything unusual or strange in the quarry before it was sealed off and most of the union workers eyed Rose suspiciously when she asked.

Rose did not find the Doctor.

* * *

On the third day, Rose listened in on the negotiations. If the alien threat wasn’t outside, then perhaps it was inside.

By early afternoon, she had earned seven glares from Jenny Smith -- seemingly for no other reason than existing -- and was bored out of her mind. It was baffling that healthcare of all things was up for debate, especially at a company level. How did the U.S. survive like this?

She glanced towards Ryan Sinclair sitting beside her. He looked like he would be just as bored as Rose if not for the game loaded up on his phone.

“What are you playing?” Rose whispered.

Ryan jumped. He shot a quick look to the front of the room, but Jenny wasn’t paying attention. To Rose, he murmured, “It’s this first person shooter my friend got me hooked on.”

He nodded towards the left side of the room, and Rose spotted a young woman about three rows up also absorbed in her phone.

“They have the coolest games here,” Ryan said. “And there’s no compatibility issues. Like right now, we’re remoting into her Playstation to play. How awesome is that?”

Rose watched a barrel blow up beside Ryan’s character. “You’re doing that from your phone?”

“Yeah. And technically it’s not a Playstation, but it’s still made by Sony. So I think of it like a Playstation 3000.”

“Or 2103,” Rose said. Something felt off in this conversation, but she couldn’t tell if it was real or if she was being hypervigilant.

Ryan stifled a chuckle. “Yeah, exactly. Playstation 2103. Oh no, no, no, no get the health pack. Get the health pack.”

“Ryan!”

They both startled at Jenny’s reprimand. Ryan’s character died on the screen.

“Yeah?”

Jenny held out her hands. “Something to add to the class?”

“Uh,” Ryan cleared his throat. “Yeah, I was thinking there should be a monthly allowance for entertainment. Cause they can’t really get out of town much and there’s no movie theater here or anything.”

Jenny stared. “We’re talking about dental.”

“Right, dental,” Ryan said. “That’s important.”

Rose smothered her smirk.

Jenny pointed sternly at her. “Stop it.”

Make that eight glares for the day. To release some frustration, Rose imagined herself slapping Jenny hard across the face. It helped.

As the discussion (and Jenny’s attention) returned to the healthcare demands, Rose leaned over to Ryan. “Well, I thought it was a good suggestion.”

“Thanks,” he said with a half smile.

* * *

On the fourth day, Rose had to duck out of a meeting early to field a phone call from her mother. It was the third call between them during this trip, but according to her mum that wasn’t enough. It was day six in their parallel world, and no amount of explaining about the time conversion between universes would convince her mum that less time had passed for Rose.

“How hard is it to call home every day?” Jackie said. “At least until you find him. I’m not asking for the moon here.”

“I have been calling home every day.”

“Calling Torchwood is not the same thing,” Jackie argued. “Although, you spend so much time there I suppose you would call it home.”

“Mum,” Rose sighed.

“I know you’re looking for the Doctor. I know you’re not coming home until you find him, but--”

Her mum cut herself off to fight back -- tears? No, not quite. But something just as heavy that made Rose’s heart twist in on itself.

Jackie recovered. “You can’t just not call home. You understand me? Every day I expect a call.”

“Okay,” Rose agreed. “Every day. I’ll call just before Tony’s bedtime.”

“No, don’t do that,” Jackie said. “It’ll wind him up too much and we’ll never get him down.”

Rose chuckled. “Okay, I’ll call just after.”

“Good.”

They exchanged goodbyes and then hung up. Rose looked around at yet another sunny day in this Texan town. She’d wandered right through the street while she’d talked to her mother and had ended up by the cafe. It was still strange to never see cars driving the streets during the day. Some commuted to the center of town if they lived at the far end of the residential sections or if they couldn’t physically handle the walk into town. But outside of early morning or early evening, the street was basically an extra wide sidewalk.

“Everything alright?” a man asked.

Rose spun towards the voice. Graham O’Brien sat at one of the outdoor tables enjoying a cold sandwich.

“Fine,” Rose said. She waved her phone. “Just, mums. You know.”

“Ah,” Graham said.

Rose walked over to join him at the table. “Have the morning negotiations let out?”

Graham shook his head. “But it’s lunch time, so I’m eating lunch.”

Rose smiled. “A man who likes a schedule.”

“I’m not strict about it,” Graham said. “But everyone agrees regularly spaced meals are healthier. You can’t eat two meals back to back and then not eat for the next eighteen hours. That’s what wrecks your blood sugar.”

“I should try to be better at that. I’m usually travelling too much to manage regular meals,” Rose said.

“I thought that was our problem too. I thought staying in one place would mean eating at normal times, but look at them.” Graham gestured back towards the town hall. “Still missing lunch because they’re too busy working. That means it’s a mentality. If you don’t choose to eat, you won’t eat.”

“Well, I’ve also been called a workaholic, so you might be onto something.”

Graham ate a crisp. “What type of work do you do?”

“So, you’ve guessed I’m not really a lawyer?” Rose asked.

“I’ve always known that,” Graham said, utterly unconcerned about Rose being in town under false pretenses. “But I still haven’t heard what you do.”

“Oh, this and that.” Rose turned the tables. “What about you? You said you travelled a lot too. Do you help with contract negotiations all over, then?”

“No, not contracts specifically.” Graham considered for a moment, and then said, “We help people. It doesn’t matter the problem. This time just happens to be contracts for a unionized rock quarry.”

His words struck a chord with Rose. Her thoughts drifted back to the Doctor, and she wondered for the five hundredth time where he was.

“I used to help people, too.”

Graham studied her, but Rose was too lost in her thoughts to mind.

“And now?” he asked.

Rose heaved a sigh. “I’m trying to help.”

“I can catch you up on the negotiations if you want.”

Rose shook her head. “Not with that. There’s something else, something… bad. But I can’t do it by myself.”

“You need the friend you’re looking for,” Graham said.

“Yeah.” Rose forced her thoughts to refocus. She smiled. “He’ll show up soon, though. I’ll find him.”

Graham’s expression -- it wasn’t pity. Not exactly. It was more like… remorse.

“I hope you do, Rose,” he said.

“Thanks.” Rose felt wrong-footed now, so she stood up. “Enjoy your lunch, Graham,” she added, before leaving the table.

“They’re serving up tacos again,” Graham called after her. “Homemade tortilla shells. They always go fast so you might as well be first in line.”

Rose smiled, but didn’t otherwise respond.

Though, she did buy a taco.

* * *

Every night, after checking in with Mickey, Rose walked the town. Every street, every building, she covered it all. Just in case she’d missed something. Just in case something had changed since she’d searched before.

The walk took two hours. It took an hour alone to search the perimeter of the quarry. She couldn’t find a way inside it. Every night, the fence towered ten feet tall above Rose’s head. Every night, the tarps strewn across the outside of the fence fluttered in the breeze, but otherwise proved to be impenetrable. Not loose enough to allow handholds or footholds in the fence. Too thick to grant any visibility into the quarry, and too overlapping with one another to circumvent this issue. The best Rose could do was pause and listen every few feet. Listen for voices, for footsteps, for a whirling, grinding groan growing louder and louder with each pulse.

She heard nothing. But she still found a friend.

“Mind if I join you?” Yaz asked on night five. “Maybe you could use an extra set of eyes.”

Rose smiled. “That’d be nice. Thanks.”

Yaz gave her a small smile in return. “Sure.”

They talked in fragments: scattered conversations about the various meetings they’d sat through that day: the victories, the compromises, the setbacks. They considered the agenda for tomorrow and which demands were on the docket.

Sometimes, Yaz asked about the Doctor. What type of suit did he wear? What color were his eyes? The questions made sense once Rose learned Yaz had worked for the police in a previous life. These were questions anyone would ask if they were filling out a missing person case.

Rose mused on this concept: the Doctor as a missing person. Flyers and milk cartons with his face on them, the words ‘Have you seen this man?’ in bold letters. What kind of reward for information would be listed? How did someone put a price on the Doctor?

The contact was easy: Rose Tyler. Last Seen: Canary Wharf, London, 2006. Or did his projection on a beach in a parallel Norway count?

Did any of it matter if he’d regenerated?

It became harder and harder to shake off the fear as another day, another night ticked by. Another call to Torchwood with nothing new to report. Another call to her mother with no answers to give. Another day where her justifications for staying sounded hollower even to her own ears.

Maybe she had arrived too late.

* * *

Yaz found her on night seven sitting on the curb in front of the post office. Rose had been there since dinner and couldn’t find a reason to move. Instead, she’d been staring up at the sky, watching the colors of the sunset fade and the blackness of night take over.

“Have you ever seen a star disappear?” Rose asked as Yaz sat down beside her.

“You mean like when you look directly at a star and it disappears until you look just beside it?”

“No,” Rose said. “Permanently. One moment, it’s there, and the next, gone. Never to return.”

Eight stars had disappeared in their parallel world in the last thirty-six hours. Bright stars. Ones anyone could see without a telescope, including the middle star of Orion's Belt. Mickey had said astronomers had identified dozens more that had also disappeared over the past week.

They were running out of time.

“Given the speed of light,” Rose continued, “a star can die off and it can take decades, even centuries for us to notice -- but that’s a singular event. It’s not natural for groups of stars to disappear all at once.”

Yaz tilted her head to the sky. “Are stars disappearing?”

“Not here. Not yet.”

But they would be soon. Very soon.

Where was he?

Yaz spoke again, “Your friend… the Doctor.”

Rose shifted her gaze towards her.

Yaz seemed to struggle with herself before asking, “What is he like?”

“He’s….” It was always such a difficult question to answer. Almost as difficult as ‘why do you run off with him’ or ‘why do you stay’.

“I don’t mean what is he like to you,” Yaz added. “I mean the day to day stuff. The small stuff. Like is he awful in the morning or particular about his food?”

Rose considered for a moment. “He licks walls.”

Yaz frowned. “What?”

A smile creeped out as Rose nodded. “Walls, blood, jam -- even when it doesn’t belong to him, books, an ear once -- also without permission.”

“Why would he do that?” Yaz said, appalled.

“Superior senses, allegedly.” Rose chuckled. “I think he just likes getting into trouble. You know we got jailed once because he licked a wall? I wanted to kill him. Almost did, but I didn’t want to live with the consequences.”

“That’s not quite the answer I expected,” Yaz said.

Rose grinned and continued. “He refuses to admit to using product on his hair and insists he wakes up like that -- but my mum used to be a hairdresser. Nobody wakes up with hair like that. Sometimes, he wears glasses, usually for reading. Weirdly enough, they’re prescription. Though, I think he’d wear them even if they weren’t just so he could look impressive. He’s so vain.” Rose rolled her eyes. “Let’s see, he likes his tea with too much sugar. He loves chips. He loves hugs and is actually willing to admit it now. He used to hate anything domestic, but that’s changed too. Don’t get me wrong, he still moans and moans about visiting my mum, but he does it while setting the coordinates.”

Rose caught herself and added. “The coordinates in the GPS, I mean. He’s a terrible driver.”

“Maybe that’s why he’s not here, yet,” Yaz said.

“Maybe.” Rose’s smile was gone again. The memories had become so vivid with the recounting that her chest ached.

“Does the Doctor listen to you?”

Now, Rose was the one confused by the twist in the conversation.

“Yeah, he does.”

Yaz frowned again. “But does he really listen to you, or does he do that thing where he lets you talk and then does exactly what he wants anyway?”

Rose wanted to say no, wanted to say the Doctor always listens to her -- but she remembered a yellow disk on a chain being slipped over her head without her permission.

“If he does that, then I force him to listen. I don’t give him a choice.”

“And that works?”

“So far,” Rose said. She had still ended up trapped in a parallel world, but it had been an accident. It hadn’t been because of the Doctor’s actions. She had come back when he’d sent her away.

Yaz didn’t question her further. After another minute, Rose forced herself to stand up.

“I should start my search before the night gets too late.”

Yaz stayed seated, eyes on the pavement in front of her. “Have you checked the quarry, yet?”

“It’s all locked up,” Rose said. “No way in or under the fence, and you’d practically need a crane to get over it.”

“There’s a gate on the south side.”

Every muscle in Rose’s body stilled.

“What?”

Yaz finally stood up. She met Rose’s eyes before answering. “There’s a gate on the south side. Unlocked. It’ll let you right in.”

Slowly, Rose shook her head. “There’s no gate.”

“Yes, there is,” Yaz said. “About ten feet from the corner. You’ll find it if you’re looking for it.”

Then, Yaz walked away. Rose watched her, unable to move.

There was no gate. She had walked the quarry a dozen times in the past week. _There was no gate._

Rose ran. The quarry was a quarter mile outside of town. The south side faced the street. It would presumably hold the entrance into the quarry if such a thing had existed -- but there was no entrance. It was impossible for her to have missed it.

She skidded to a stop in front of the fence. Her lungs gasped for air for reasons that had nothing to do with the run. Her eyes quickly scanned the fence looking for any gap, any break at all in the barrier.

Nothing, nothing, nothing. Then, she felt it -- no, felt wasn’t the right word. She _sensed_ her eyes slip past something. Like a CD skipping when the bus went over a pothole except she hadn’t noticed it before. She never would’ve noticed it without Yaz pointing it out.

A perception filter. How had she missed a fucking perception filter?

There was the gate. So blatant, so obvious now that she could see it. How had she never seen it?

How had Yaz known about it?

As promised, the gate was unlocked. Carefully, Rose unhooked the latch and walked inside. The quarry was also as described: a massive pit where sections of rock had been chiseled out and shipped away. A twenty foot ledge encircled the pit. All of the machinery was stored up here, unused now for weeks. A slow sloping ramp started at the top and led deeper than she could see.

Rose ignored the pit and instead picked her way through the ledge. It didn’t take long. She ducked around one, single excavator, before her eyes fell on a familiar and heart-wrenching blue box.

The Tardis. She’d found the Tardis.

She’d found him.

Rose hardly felt her feet as she ran. She dodged between pallets and crates, and then, once the path was clear, she broke into a sprint.

“Doctor!”

Rose beat her hand against the door and called out again. A warmth spread across her chest, and she fished out the key she wore on a chain around her neck -- had always worn, even before the dimension cannon worked, even before there was any hope to chase.

The Tardis key glowed in celebration: a beacon of light welcoming her home. She unlocked the door and threw herself inside.

“Doctor!”

Her hand reached for the railing like it always did: leverage to fling herself up the ramp, leverage to reach the Doctor faster.

Her hand found nothing.

Her heart fell through her stomach. Her feet stumbled for purchase. It was like climbing the stairs and expecting one last step only to be greeted with air.

Rose recovered her footing and in the aftershock she saw -- truly saw -- where she was.

It wasn’t home.

Gone were the textured, coral like struts gently arching up from the floor to the ceiling. Gone was the metal grating and railings. Instead, the floor was made of smooth honeycombs outlined in black and backlit with white. Instead of the metal ramp, the floor sloped more gently up to a ring of opaque crystal pillars that stretched towards the ceiling and then curved at the ends towards the center. The console’s central pillar was no longer interlocking clear tubes. It was now crystal too. These crystal structures provided the main source of light. They bathed the room in hues of orange -- deeper and more red than Rose remembered, but close enough to have initially fooled her. Everything else, though… everything else was so, so wrong.

Rose took a step forward. Then, another. The place was quiet. Empty quiet, and she felt that silence echo horribly and amplify around her. The Tardis had always been bigger on the inside, but without the familiar railing surrounding the console area, the room felt cavernous, unending.

Rose clenched her fists and pushed in further. A few blue lights flicked on to reveal the walls’ bronze latticework. It might have been her imagination, but she thought she saw the fingers of the crystal pillars move as she entered the central chamber. She saw no other movement. No one waited on the other side of the console. No one came rushing from the hall. She seemed to be utterly alone.

Maybe… maybe this was before. Maybe she had travelled into the Doctor’s past. Maybe… maybe….

Someone sighed behind her. “Of course, it’s you.”

Rose spun around. Jenny Smith -- the woman who had been so rude and horrible to her from the first moment she’d arrived -- stood by the entrance to the Tardis. Stood like she was comfortable here, like she belonged here.

The woman’s shoulders slumped as Rose met her stare. “Hello, Rose.”

Rose shook her head without thought. The rejection was instinctual, like recognizing the bitter taste of poison and spitting it out.

“No.”

The woman simply stared at her, expression resigned. The answer was as obvious as the gate, but still Rose rejected it.

“You can’t be. You just can’t be.”

She couldn’t keep her eyes on the woman’s face. Instead, her gaze landed on the woman’s coat and then the coat’s lining. The navy blue lining.

Tardis blue.

It was a punch to the stomach she didn’t get a chance to absorb. Because at that moment, the Tardis doors flew open and Ryan and Graham dashed inside, followed by Yaz a second later. They gulped for air from whatever sprint they had just completed, and then Yaz turned to the others.

“See, I told you it wasn’t the workers breaking in.”

The woman spun back to Yaz. “Yes, you did. And remind me to bring that up later, because you seemed way too certain about it.”

Her words cut through Rose’s fog enough to ignite a spark of anger.

“Oi, don’t blame this on Yaz.”

The woman (the Doctor, the spark said. Oh god it was the Doctor) glanced to Rose and then turned back to Yaz with a frown.

“Scratch that, bringing it up now. What am I not blaming you for?”

Yaz hesitated, glancing between Rose and _her_ before finally saying, “I may have told her there was a gate to the quarry.”

“Yaz!”

“What was I supposed to do?” Yaz shot back. “Rose has been looking for you all week!”

The Doctor flung out her arms. “Not give her a neon sign pointing Tardis this way!”

“Oh my god.”

Rose turned away. She felt the punch now, sick and heavy right into her diaphragm. The Doctor had been here the whole time. Rose was standing in the Tardis, and the Doctor had been here hiding from her this entire fucking time.

“Jenny Smith?” Rose demanded, silencing whatever argument had still been going on behind her. She faced the others again. “You go by Jenny Smith, now?”

“What’s wrong with the name Jenny Smith?” the Doctor asked.

Behind her, Ryan groaned. “Because it’s so obvious, I told you that. Everyone uses Smith as their code name. It’s in every movie.”

“Because I did it first!” the Doctor said. “All your movies are copying me.”

“Where the hell did you pull Jenny from?” Rose spat.

The Doctor squared her shoulders. “It’s a family name.”

But the answer slipped right past Rose unheard. It had ceased to matter because her spark of anger had finally fanned into a fire large enough to burn away her shock. She marched forward.

“You lied to me.”

The resignation returned to the Doctor’s eyes. “Yes, I did.”

“For a week!” Rose shouted. “You lied to me for a week.”

“I couldn’t tell you the truth.”

“You knew I was looking for you!”

“You’re looking for a past me,” the Doctor said. “I remember it, Rose. You’re not supposed to be here. You and I were never supposed to meet.”

“But you sent me here!”

The Doctor’s brow furrowed. “No, I didn’t.”

“Oh my god.” Rose paced away again and ran her hands through her hair. Lies. All this Doctor did was lie.

“Listen, you eventually find me, Rose. I promise, you do find me, but it’s not here. You have to keep looking. That’s why I’ve been trying to get you to leave all week.”

Rose put her hands on her hips. “Fine, then tell me where to go next.”

“Home,” the Doctor said.

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Rose said, choking back tears of fury.

The Doctor shook her head, “I mean back to your parallel world, back to Torchwood.”

“No, I won’t. Not until you help me.”

“I can’t,” the Doctor said. “I’m sorry, Rose, but I can’t interfere with this.”

“But you’ve already interfered! You’re the only reason I’m even here right now.”

The Doctor was about to argue again when Graham interrupted.

“Doc, maybe you should explain a bit more. Because Rose isn’t the only one confused here.” Graham motioned towards Yaz and Ryan. “We’ve interfered plenty of times before, including times where you started out saying we shouldn’t. So why can’t we help Rose now?”

As the Doctor looked over the three members of her team, Yaz and Ryan stared back just as expectantly as Graham. Rose was thankful they weren’t the type of people to let the Doctor’s word go unchallenged.

The Doctor nodded. Then, she looked at Rose, and Rose fought not to flinch.

“You’re aware the stars are going out, yes? Darkness is spreading further and further out. The walls between the universes are collapsing.” The Doctor shook her head. “But it’s so much worse than anything you’re imagining.”

“The convergence,” Rose said.

“That’s not even a quarter of it,” the Doctor said. “Because it’s not just the stars. It’s the complete collapse of reality. A bomb.”

She turned back to her team. “Do you see? It isn’t just one timeline at risk. It’s every timeline, in every universe. It’s Rose, it’s us. It’s the past and the present and the future. It’s everything.”

To Rose, again, she continued, “But we stop it. You find me and we stop it. But if I do anything -- however miniscule -- to change things, then I can’t guarantee the same result. That’s why I can’t help you. I can’t risk all of reality.”

This explanation settled with finality over Graham and Ryan and Yaz. They accepted the Doctor’s words and made no more arguments.

But Rose still carried another Doctor’s words with her: a Doctor she trusted far more than this one.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying.”

Anger burned Rose’s throat. “No, I see what’s really happened. You’ll help me in the past, back when I still mattered, back when you still cared. But now, I’m clearly long gone, and that’s it. You’re done with me.”

“That is not it,” the Doctor said.

“No, it is. You’ve moved on. Left me behind just like you swore--” Rose couldn’t continue.

If the Doctor wasn’t such an accomplished liar, Rose would’ve said she looked pained.

“That is not what’s happened. This isn’t about you and me. I’m just--”

“Just the Doctor,” Rose interrupted. She nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. And you’re all the worst parts of him.”

Without waiting for a response, Rose fled into the halls of the Tardis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I didn't have it in myself to go with grace  
>  cause when I'd fight you used to tell me I was brave  
> _  
> (tears ricochet by Taylor Swift)
> 
> No vintage fan vid for this one obviously. folklore came out when I was drafting and this line was too perfect for me to not include it on this chapter.


	6. Making Amends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _I try to make my way to you  
>  but still I feel so lost  
> I don't know what else I can do  
> _  
> (Take Me Away by Lifehouse)
> 
> [Vintage Ten/Rose fanvid reuploaded to YouTube here](https://youtu.be/iEO6GQEitOY)

“Where are you going?” the Doctor called after her as she fled.

But Rose ignored her. She tore through the halls on auto-pilot, her feet cutting a familiar path through unfamiliar surroundings, all while her mind raged.

How dare she. How dare the Doctor lie to her like that? How could she do such a thing? After everything they -- it didn’t make any sense.

What had happened to her Doctor?

When her feet tried to turn her left one last time, Rose finally stopped. Because there, cut into the horribly lit bronze wall was an archway framed by textured, gold struts. It opened into a hallway very different from the one Rose stood in.The walls there were the same organic gold as the struts, though with a smoother texture. The cursed honeycombed floor abruptly stopped at the entryway, and a soothing metal grating took over.

Rose turned left into the hallway. She followed its familiar walls until she reached a door that she knew very well.

Her bedroom. From a different time, on a different Tardis.

She opened the door.

Inside, the floor was covered by a large rug in a monotone navy blue with the fibers angled against each other to create a pattern of swirls throughout. Her vanity sat to the left, mostly blocked by the door. An oversized, grey leather loveseat sat to the right. The ends were filled with fuzzy, pink pillows and the back was draped with thick, soft blankets. The left wall held two doors: one to the ensuite and one to a deep walk-in closet. Her bed rested against the right wall. It was a simple double bed, no footboard or posts or canopy. Just a headboard built with a plush cushion, designed for comfort rather than style.

The room was exactly as she’d left it that morning they’d visited her mum three years ago. Right down to the dresser drawer stuck open on a sock and the spot of nail polish on her vanity table she’d been too rushed to wipe off.

_I promise, you do find me._

“Liar,” Rose whispered.

A tear fell down her cheek. Then, a second. She crossed the room and sat down on the edge of her bed. Her hands clutched at the bedspread, a soft tye-dye of sky blue and morning purple. It had been pink like the one at her mum’s when she’d first come on board. At some point after the Doctor had regenerated, she had decided she’d wanted to redecorate. She had been unable to settle on a design, though, and then one day, she’d returned to her bedroom to find the Tardis had decided for her. The Tardis, of course, had chosen perfectly.

A sob threatened, but Rose clawed it back. Which trip had they been on when the Tardis had redecorated? What had they seen?

Rose couldn’t remember. Her eyes searched for anything else to hold onto, and she landed on the photo collage taped above her headboard. It was the sort of thing that could be found in any teenager’s room. Some of the photos -- ones of her mum, of her old friends on the Powell Estate -- had been stolen from home. Others Rose had taken on those precious few days where no evil threatened the world and she and the Doctor could just play tourist. Sometimes, she’d remembered to bring a camera. More often, she’d snapped them with her phone and later had learned how to use the Tardis to print them out. These images spanned her entire time with the Doctor and showed everyone: Mickey, Jack, the Doctor in both of his regenerations.

Her eyes lingered on the pictures with the Doctor. Carefully, she kneeled on her bed to peel one of them from the wall. It had been taken here in the Tardis, in the console room when the Doctor had been “recalibrating” some switches. (Figuring out what they did, more like. Rose wasn’t fooled.) There had been no special reason for the picture. Rose had simply realized it had been a while since she’d taken any, and they’d had the time, so why not? The Doctor had posed happily (anything to distract her from how much he didn’t know about the Tardis) and the camera had caught him wearing his typical goofy grin, the one that when paired with his big brown eyes and purposefully sculpted hair made him look downright boyish.

Rose traced the contours of his face with her fingertip. Seeing him again, even in a picture, tore her heart in half. The sob won out this time, and Rose squeezed her eyes shut against the deluge of tears.

It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. She’d searched so hard, travelled so far -- why couldn’t she find him? Why couldn’t she reach him?

Rose choked on the tears running into her throat. Her head ached already, and she couldn’t breathe.

“Where are you?”

The tears didn’t stop.

* * *

Rose opened her eyes. She was lying on her bed in the Tardis and had the tired sense that time had suddenly jumped forward. She’d fallen asleep, though she didn’t remember doing anything of the sort. It hadn’t been a very kind sleep. No dreams. No brief moment upon waking where she believed she was truly home again.

But even a second of believing that would’ve caused her more pain. Maybe the sleep had been kind then after all.

Rose sat up. Her throat felt swollen, and her head pounded. Her chest, on the other hand, felt thick and muted: like she’d cried out every emotion inside her and could no longer feel anything at all.

She used the ensuite -- still functional, still exactly as she had left it -- to clean up. She found some painkillers stored in there and swallowed two for her head. If the Tardis followed the normal rules of time, the pills would’ve been far past their Use By date. But there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere in her bedroom, so she assumed the pills had been frozen in time as well.

Besides, if they made her sick, the Doctor could just deal with it. Rose was already such a burden and an inconvenience to her, anyway. What’s one more inconvenience added to the list?

Rose grimaced. That was petty. She didn’t want to be petty, but she was too exhausted to be anything else.

Also the Doctor had spent the past week lying to her: over and over and over again.

Back in her bedroom, her eyes fell onto the picture of the Doctor -- her Doctor -- that she’d fallen asleep holding. The pain was muted, but still there -- and swiftly growing sharper the longer she looked at the image, so she forced herself to look away.

She needed a plan. She needed another chance to argue her side. She needed to talk to the Doctor again, but god she didn’t want to. If she’d thought the temptation to hide herself away in the Tardis had been high the last time around, it was nothing compared to the temptation that arose when she was already sequestered away in her old bedroom.

What could she even say? The Doctor had made her perspective very known. Rose wouldn’t get any help from her. But what was the alternative? To give up?

Rose took a shuddering breath and sat down on her bed. Giving up was about her only option, now. What more could she be expected to do if the Doctor was no longer willing to help her?

If the Doctor no longer wanted her.

A fresh batch of tears threatened. Rose swiped them away and pulled out her phone.

“Rose!” her mum answered on the first ring. “Sweetheart, you’re calling early.”

“Sorry, were you still putting Tony to bed?”

“To bed? Of course not. It’s half past ten in the morning.”

Rose glanced at her watch and realized her mum was right. “Oh. I didn’t think to check the time before calling.”

“Well, I’m not complaining,” Jackie said. “But is everything alright? You sound a bit… I don’t know.”

Rose’s throat squeezed in on itself until she couldn’t speak.

But Jackie’s motherly instincts still functioned even across universes. She heard enough in Rose’s silence to voice her concern. “What’s wrong? What’s happened over there?”

“Nothing.”

It might have been the most honest and dishonest thing she’d ever said to her mother. Absolutely nothing had happened since she last called home, but it was because everything had happened.

“Rose.”

“I was just calling because…” Rose struggled to get the words past her still too tight throat. “I might be coming home earlier than I thought.”

“How early?”

“Um, in about three hours or so.”

“Three hours?”

“Maybe less.” Rose wasn’t sure she needed two hours to wrap things up here. She might not even need two minutes.

Jackie’s concern dropped to something more dangerous. “What did he do?”

Rose’s vision blurred. That her mother was both so close and so horribly far from the truth broke her, and she could no longer keep her voice even.

“It’s nothing, Mum. I’m fine.”

“Is he there? Put me on the phone with him. Oh, I’ll make him wish he could stay dead.”

“No, Mum--”

Rose moved the phone away to mute her tears. She fought for three long seconds before she could speak again.

“Just give me three hours. Then, we’ll know, okay?”

“Know what?”

“If I’m coming home.”

Jackie did not sound convinced but she allowed Rose to end the call without arguing. Rose was grateful. If she’d had to explain what had really happened, her mum might have stolen the dimension cannon and popped over here to slap the Doctor herself. As warranted as that might be, it also came with more repercussions than Rose had the strength to deal with.

Rose took the time to gather herself. When the tears had stopped and her chest was back to a dull ache, she forced herself to stand and then ventured outside of the familiar comfort of her bedroom.

The Tardis was quiet again. Rose had no idea how long she’d been gone. Her mum had said half past ten, but the time conversion between universes didn’t work like time zones across the Earth. Half past ten at home didn’t always correlate to the same time here.

Her phone said it was quarter to one in the morning. Late, but not so late. The others might have gone off to bed, or they might be avoiding her like she’d been avoiding them.

The halls -- the ones that truly belonged to this future version of the Tardis -- were still dimly lit. Despite not recognizing their twists and turns, Rose found her way back to the console room much faster than she would’ve preferred. She didn’t go in right away, though. Instead, she hovered in the shadows of the hallway and observed.

Only the Doctor was around. She leaned over the console, arms bracing her, and stared down at the dials and switches that controlled the Tardis. She might have been planning a trip or calculating repairs. She might have been thinking about the quarry’s union battles or how to get rid of Rose or even nothing at all. Rose had no idea. This woman was the Doctor, yes, but she was also a complete stranger. Rose was terrified to realize she knew nothing about this person.

“I think the others are asleep,” the Doctor said without looking up.

Rose tensed.

The Doctor tilted her head uncertainly. “Or they’re having a midnight snack. They didn’t say which it was. Honestly, I think they just wanted to give us some privacy. Not that we’ve needed it because we haven’t been talking. Thinking, maybe, which can be good. Not always, though. Sometimes, thinking just leads to more thinking and creates a vicious, unending spiral.”

It seemed the Doctor still babbled. Though, whatever familiarity Rose used to find in it had long disappeared.

Finally, the Doctor looked over at Rose. She’d seemed poised to continue rambling, but the words froze and died on her face when their eyes met. Instead, the Doctor simply said, “Hi.”

“Hi.”

Rose took two hesitant steps into the console room. She tore her eyes away from the Doctor, but the towering crystal pillars turned out to be more unnerving and she soon brought her gaze back. She asked the question she should have asked from the beginning.

“How long has it been?”

“Since I last saw you?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh… a while,” the Doctor said while turning away. She paced the perimeter of the console while her hands pointlessly flicked and spun controls. It was a distraction tactic. Maybe her current team of travellers couldn’t recognize it yet, but Rose knew all of the Doctor’s tricks.

“How long is a while?”

The Doctor shrugged. “I can’t remember exactly.”

“Doctor.” Rose stomped her foot hard enough that if the floor had still been metal her footstep would’ve rang out across the room.

“About two thousand years,” the Doctor admitted as she looked up again.

Rose gaped. “Two… _thousand_ years?”

“Give or take,” the Doctor said.

Rose didn’t ask what the give or take meant. She couldn’t absorb the information she had already been given. Two thousand years? The Doctor hadn’t even been one thousand years old when they’d met, and now _two thousand more_ years had passed since then?

“I’m surprised you even remember me after that long.”

The Doctor’s carefully arranged neutral expression evaporated into fury. “I haven’t forgotten you, Rose. It would take much more than the mere passage of time for me to forget you.”

The arrogant dismissal of time stood out to Rose more than the sentiment -- if there even was any sentiment to be read there. The Doctor could’ve been simply stating a fact about the longevity of a Time Lord’s memory. Nothing more, nothing less.

“My mistake, then.”

Rose followed her urge to pace, but her steps were small and aimless. Between the pillars around the console, there was nothing. No seats, no railing. The Doctor could flick switches and push buttons to avoid, but Rose was stuck in this exposing conversation with nowhere to go.

“Now, I have a question for you,” the Doctor said. The fury was gone, though her voice was still hard.

“What?”

“You kept saying I sent you here. What did you mean by that?”

Rose stilled. Her mind flashed back to Deoliv when she’d last seen the Doctor. When he’d still been willing to help and had used the Tardis to direct her where to go. That had been a week ago now. A full week of hoping and expecting to find the Doctor, her Doctor, and instead finding lies and secrets and code names two thousand years too late in the timeline.

The Doctor spoke again, “After Bad Wolf Bay, I don’t see you again until you find me on that abandoned street.”

“What abandoned street?” Rose asked.

The Doctor shook her head. “It’s during the convergence. It’s still in your future, but that’s the next time I see you. So how could I have sent you here?”

Rose stared at her for a moment. “You saw me on Deoliv.”

The Doctor frowned. “Deoliv? But that was… that was ages ago. Before I regenerated -- that was with you and Jack.”

Rose nodded. “And it’s where I found you.”

The Doctor frowned for another second and then her face crumpled.

“Oh, that feels weird,” she groaned.

The Doctor’s feet stumbled back and she brought her hand up to her head. Alarm spiked through Rose.

“Doctor?”

“Yep, very weird,” the Doctor said, now doubled over.

Rose hesitantly stepped forward. She flashed back to those first terrifying moments after the regeneration.

“What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

“Not wrong. New.” The Doctor scrunched her eyes shut. Then, she shivered. “Ugh, that one tickles.”

Rose hung back and waited. After another few moments, the Doctor straightened and blinked like she was clearing something from her eyes.

“Okay. That’s interesting.”

She was still the same. Same looks, same voice. There hadn’t been any burning lights exploding from her, so Rose could at least be certain the Doctor hadn’t suddenly died on her again. Beyond that, though, she was at a loss.

“What was that?” Rose asked.

“New memories,” the Doctor said. She stared out at nothing like she was still reliving these new experiences.

“Is it… You mentioned a timelock before,” Rose said. “I thought you were just making up an excuse to help me.”

“No.” The Doctor shut her eyes. “I mean, yes. I do remember putting a timelock on the memories. I didn’t make that up. But that wasn’t the memories unlocking just now because that would’ve already happened. It should’ve already happened, so why didn’t I remember it?”

Rose frowned. “Okay, hold on. You said you would lock the memories of Deoliv away until our timelines caught up to each other.”

“Yes, and I did.”

“Then, how would the memories have already been unlocked?”

“Because you find me,” the Doctor said. “In my past, in your future. I know you still don’t believe me about that, but it’s true. I remember you finding me, which means I should’ve remembered you finding me on Deoliv.”

“But you’re further in the timeline,” Rose said.

“Exactly,” the Doctor said. “My past self would’ve unlocked the memories, even if you find him later. Which means here now, I should have already remembered everything, but I didn’t.”

She stared pensively at the air again. “These memories are brand new.”

Rose may have been getting answers, but they were the kind that only created more questions.

“What’s the difference between unlocked memories and new ones?”

“Change.”

Rose huffed. “Can you give a complete answer just once in your life?”

But the Doctor was already rushing around the console and adjusting the controls with much more purpose than she had been earlier.

“A complete answer?” she said. “No, too difficult. But the short answer is the timeline has changed. Specifically, my past. And the memories from Deoliv is that change catching up to me.”

“None of that counts as an answer.”

“You’re right, it doesn’t,” the Doctor said. “We need to confirm it.”

Blue holographic images suddenly flared to life around them. Rose was stunned.

“Someone’s done an upgrade,” she murmured, squinting at these new projections.

“Yeah, screens were getting a little small for me,” the Doctor said. “I thought my eyes just changed with a regeneration, but maybe they do get worse with age.”

The projection was as large as ten screens put together and curved between the crystal pillars, suggesting they held a purpose beyond intimidating intruders. Because the walls were still visible beyond the projection, it took Rose a moment to adjust her eyes. Once she did, she realized one of the images was a display of timeline readings.

“Hold on,” the Doctor said. “When you accused me of not being flash enough, is this what you meant?”

Rose looked over her shoulder at the Doctor. “I mean,” she pointed at the display, “this is pretty impressive.”

The Doctor pulled a face like she was suddenly regretting every decision that led to her switching the Tardis to holographic displays. It didn’t make any sense until Rose remembered exactly when she’d complained about a lack of flash.

“Wait, is this about Jack? Are you still jealous of him two thousand years later?”

“I was never jealous of him,” the Doctor lied. She adjusted a control on the console. “This scan’s going to take a few minutes.”

“What are you scanning?” Rose asked.

“My past,” the Doctor said. “I want to know what else has changed and why.”

Rose fiddled with the waistband of her jacket and watched the timelines flicker and twist and spiral across the room-sized display. When it became obvious that ‘a few minutes’ meant more than five, she grumbled.

“You could’ve at least kept a seat in here.”

“There’s all kinds of seating in here. Take your pick.”

Rose pulled her gaze towards the direction the Doctor was gesturing. Beyond the glowing pillars -- what would’ve been outside of the metal railing on her Tardis -- the honeycomb floor tiles raised up in interlocking tiers. They looked closer to oversized versions of the jewelry display cases at Henrik’s than proper seating.

“Stadium seating?” Rose said. “Were you planning on holding rock concerts in here or something?”

“No. Although my last regeneration did play an electric guitar.” The Doctor cocked her head. “I wonder if I still have that somewhere.”

Rose let the comment about the Doctor’s previous regeneration pass. The Doctor had lived two thousand years since Rose, so there was no way the comment had been about her Doctor. As much as she had always wanted to know about the Doctor’s past and who he was, she had no desire to dig into the last two thousand years. It was probably denial, a little voice in her head said. The voice sounded too much like Mickey.

She climbed up to the third row of the raised floor tiles and sat down where she could still see the holographic display. The upside to bleacher style seating was the row below provided a place to prop up your feet. With the jump seat, you either had to slouch completely down to brace your feet against the console or let your feet dangle in the air. Only the Doctor had had long enough legs to sit comfortably while using the console as a footrest. Rose wondered if this new Doctor’s disgruntledness over the length of her legs had been what prompted the switch to more accommodating seating.

The Doctor came over and sat beside her -- right beside her. Because while hexagons interlock to have comfortable spacing between rows, sitting side by side on two hexagons from the same row put you much closer together than normal seats.

Or at least, that’s what it felt like to Rose. She kept her legs and arms tucked firmly to herself, and kept her eyes on the timeline scan, waiting for a beep or a ding or whatever signal would happen to indicate the scan was complete.

The Doctor stared at her.

Rose ignored it. She focused on her sleeves, first tugging down her shirt sleeve until it was longer, and then switching to tug at her jacket sleeve. Eventually, she broke and turned to face the Doctor.

“What are you doing?”

The Doctor’s expression was soft enough that Rose had to add three more walls to her heart to remain unaffected.

“You’ve changed so much,” the Doctor said.

Rose scrunched her forehead. “How have I changed? You’re the one who’s two thousand years older.”

“No, from when we first met.” The Doctor tapped the side of her head. “The memories are still fresh from Deoliv like they happened an hour ago.”

“They happened last week.”

The Doctor continued unphased, “I sent one Rose Tyler off to explore the planet and turned around to find an entirely different one.”

Rose shifted back towards the display. “I’m not so different.”

“You’re still you, obviously. Still brave and stubborn and willing to take risks when it matters without being outright reckless,” the Doctor said. “But you’ve learned so much since we met. It’s hard to appreciate that when you live it day to day, but seeing the difference of years on the same day?” The Doctor released a breath. “You’re incredible.”

Rose fidgeted with the ends of her sleeves again. Even with the reinforcements, the walls between them were crumbling. Rose wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t want to feel this vulnerable when she still didn’t know how much she could even trust this future Doctor.

“You’ve changed more.”

“It’s my first time being a woman,” the Doctor said, unprompted.

Rose shot her a questioning look.

The Doctor shrugged. “You hadn’t asked yet. I thought you might be embarrassed.”

Well, she was embarrassed now.

Rose looked away again. It hadn’t even crossed her mind to ask about the Doctor’s gender change. It might have, if Rose had known who ‘Jenny Smith’ really was from the start. In fact, the Doctor being a woman would’ve been the first thing she’d asked about. But the Doctor had hidden from her for a week, lied to her repeatedly, and then refused to help her. The Doctor being a woman instead of a man seemed like such an insignificant change in comparison.

“I meant how you never stay in one place,” Rose said. “You’ve been here for three weeks now. Since when do you bother with contract negotiations?”

The Doctor’s posture stiffened.

“Just trying something new.”

“But why?” Rose pushed.

The Doctor didn’t answer. She didn’t sigh or shake her head or pace. She stayed completely still and stared out into the Tardis.

Rose stared at the Doctor’s profile. She’d outwaited the Doctor before and she could do it again.

The Doctor caved.

“You’re not the only old friend we’ve run into lately,” the Doctor said, gaze still averted. “A few months back there was this woman named Ace -- well, Dorothy McShane, but I knew her as Ace.”

The part of Rose that had twisted into a bitter, jealous rage at Sarah Jane’s presence didn’t even lift a finger at this new name.

“Who was she?” Rose asked.

“She was just a kid,” the Doctor said. “Found her on an ice planet a million lightyears from home. I tried to teach her everything I know, but I pushed her too hard. I didn’t let her make her own choices, and she left.”

She glanced towards Rose, but looked away again just as quickly before continuing.

“She’s all grown up now. Runs a charity on Earth where she does a lot of amazing work. Even still owns a private arsenal. She always did like explosives.”

“What does Ace have to do with this rock quarry?” Rose asked.

“Nothing,” the Doctor said. “And maybe everything. I don’t know, Ace just sort of made me think… I have changed. I don’t make the same mistakes as I did with her, but I also haven’t changed at all.”

Rose still didn’t understand the connection, but this time she waited in silence to see if the Doctor would explain.

“We helped her shut down an intergalactic trafficking ring: people, slaves.” Even in profile, the Doctor’s eyes flashed with a heated anger at those words. “And then Ace stayed behind on the planet to tie up loose ends: see to the paperwork, make sure the victims got home safely, that sort of thing.”

Rose eyed up the Doctor. “So, you’re what? Trying to prove you can stick around for the clean up work, too?”

The Doctor ducked her head. Even as unfamiliar as Rose was with the Doctor at this point in time, she could still see the deflection shield raise.

“Just a change of pace, like I said. It’s good to mix things up now and again.”

Rose considered this statement. Then, she considered the Doctor and everything she’d witnessed this week.

“You hate it.”

“I do not,” the Doctor scoffed.

“Yes, you do. Paperwork gives you a headache and you hate people who refuse to try. You probably imagine strangling that CEO a dozen times a day.”

“Look, we all hate what we’re not good at, alright?” The Doctor huffed. “And it’s up to three dozen.”

Rose smirked.

“An hour,” the Doctor added. “Stop smirking.”

“Is Ace okay?” Rose asked.

The Doctor blinked, and then held Rose’s gaze again. “She’s brilliant and, admittedly, much better with bureaucrats than I am. Don’t worry. She didn’t suffer lasting damage from me.”

Rose had asked out of curiosity rather than concern. She wondered what the Doctor had experienced in the last two thousand years for her to think otherwise.

The Tardis beeped. The Doctor straightened.

“Scan’s done.”

She grabbed Rose’s elbow just long enough to pull Rose to her feet and stop her heart. Once upright, the Doctor promptly let go and rushed over to the Tardis display. The whiplash kept Rose frozen in place until she could shake it off and follow.

“There’s no source,” the Doctor said as she read through the results. “The change isn’t due to one thing. It came from everything.”

Rose joined her at the display. “Everything what?”

“Everything,” the Doctor repeated. “Everything I’ve ever done, every choice I’ve ever made. They’ve all rippled out through time, creating more ripples and more until…. I’ve changed my own timeline.”

The Doctor portrayed no other emotion beyond shock at this revelation, but Rose grew nervous.

“Which part of your timeline has changed?”

“Not all of it, but significant chunks.” The Doctor zoomed in on the timelines and then pulled Rose to her side. “Look, do you see that?”

Rose was incapable of seeing anything at that moment. The Doctor had grabbed her arm again, and while she had let go once Rose had moved where she’d wanted her to, Rose could still feel the firm imprints of the Doctor’s fingers wrapped around her elbow. When she managed to shake off the distraction, Rose looked to where the Doctor was pointing and saw a faint, translucent line beneath one of the timelines.

“Is that like an echo or something?” Rose asked.

“Not a bad guess. I told you you’ve been learning.” The Doctor nudged her, and Rose, once again, scrambled to stay focused.

The Doctor continued, “It’s closer to a spectral timeline: a ghost. It’s something that did happen until it didn’t. Usually, when an event disappears from the timeline, it fades without issue. Almost as often, it will create a parallel world, but a ghost timeline is incredibly rare.”

“Which event is that ghost?” Rose asked.

“Canary Wharf.”

Rose’s heart did the equivalent of pulling the kill switch and slamming on the accelerator at the same time.

“What do you mean that’s Canary Wharf? Are you saying that never happened with the Cybermen and the Daleks and…. I was still stuck in that parallel world!”

“I know,” the Doctor said. “We remember it, so it still happened to us. But the rest of Earth never experienced it. That’s what a ghost timeline is: a moment of time that’s been severed from the timestream. It’s impossible to ever travel to it again because it never happened except in the memories of those most affected. You and me, the Torchwood employees, the families of those lost -- they remember it, or at least portions of it. But someone like Graham or Yaz or Ryan? They likely remember nothing.”

The Doctor suddenly slapped her head. “Oh, of course! That’s why UNIT got dissolved. They were deemed unnecessary because Earth can’t remember it’s own history! What else has changed?”

The Doctor scrolled through the display, adjusting controls here and there, but Rose didn’t pay attention to the readings.

“Is it my fault?” she finally said. “Was it because I found you on Deoliv? Did that mess everything up?”

The Doctor paused her fiddling. “No. Nothing about this is your fault, Rose. Ghost timelines, the past changing -- that’s all because of me. A by-product of living for so long yet never learning to mind my own business. You didn’t cause any of it. In fact, it’s the other way around. You were able to find me on Deoliv because the past had changed.”

“Okay.”

But Rose felt like nothing was okay. A mysterious convergence of time was terrifying but simple, because it required a simple solution: find the Doctor. But jumping two thousand years into the Doctor’s future and discovering ghost timelines and that the worst day of her life had been causally erased from the memory of the universe was -- well, it was beyond terrifying, and it certainly didn’t suggest a simple solution.

“So, what now?”

“Now,” the Doctor said, “I confirm how big of an apology I owe you. It’s a formality, honestly. I already know it’s going to be a big one.”

The Doctor turned another dial, and Rose watched the timeline spin forward. She identified another ghost timeline, but otherwise didn’t recognize this section of the readings. It was messy; that much she could see. A whole tangled mess of timelines colliding with each other like a tree’s branches drawn in two-dimensions.

Oh, wait a minute. It was the convergence. She was looking at the convergence but in high resolution detail rather than the vague glow Torchwood had been studying.

“You’re looking at my future,” Rose said.

The Doctor stared at the readings. “Not anymore.”

Rose hoped the Doctor was referring to the ghost timeline clearly existing beneath the readings like a smudge. But she didn’t _know_ that’s what the Doctor was referring to, so when the Doctor walked back over to stand in front of her, Rose took a reflexive step back like space could protect her from whatever the Doctor was about to say.

“I shouldn’t have lied to you. I was protecting a timeline that no longer exists. I’m sorry, Rose.”

It might have been less shocking if the Doctor had said ‘in three seconds, you’ll fade from existence’.

“Okay.”

“It’s not okay,” the Doctor said. “Even without Deoliv, I should’ve known the moment I saw you that something had changed and investigated it instead of pushing you away. I truly am sorry.”

The funny thing was, Rose believed her. She’d only heard lies and lies and lies all week, but this time, the Doctor really did seem to be telling the truth.

“Thank you.” Rose glanced towards the Tardis display still centered on the convergence. “But what happens now?”

The Doctor took in a deep breath. “I… have no idea. Whatever the new timeline is, it’s still being written. I think what happens next is going to be up to you because it’s your future at stake, not mine.”

“But it’s your past,” Rose said.

The Doctor gave her an empty smile. “No one can choose their past, Rose. Not even Time Lords.”

“Well, then… what are my options?”

“Anything,” the Doctor said. “You can go home, you can keep looking, I can find a point in time still stable enough to drop you off, you can even stay here if you want. It’s entirely up to you.”

Rose didn’t know which option the Doctor hoped she would pick, but there was only one that interested her.

“You can drop me off?”

The Doctor nodded. “It won’t be on Earth, but most of my other trips during your time are intact. It is interesting how all the ghost timelines seem congregated on Earth.” She squinted at the display. “Maybe I do spend too much time there.”

“Any time I want?”

“Within reason,” the Doctor said.

Rose nodded. “I’m betting that means ten seconds after your signal on the beach fades is off the table.”

An uncertain grimace made the Doctor’s nose scrunch high up on her face. In another time, another place, Rose might have called the expression adorable.

“Technically, I can’t definitively rule that out,” the Doctor said, “but my gut’s nervous about changing three years worth of memories, especially when I’ve already reversed one of those years.”

Rose had suspected as much. “Then, what about two weeks?”

The Doctor’s face relaxed. “Two weeks?”

“Two weeks before you remember me finding you. Not much can happen in two weeks, right?” When the Doctor only stared in response, Rose added. “I mean, sometimes it can, but then we can adjust the days. Do thirteen or fifteen days or something. It doesn’t have to be two weeks exactly.”

The Doctor still stared, unfocused.

“Doctor.”

The Doctor blinked and returned to the conversation. “Sorry, I was imagining what it’ll be like when two weeks of my memories suddenly shift to include you in them.”

She said it with a hint of awe in her voice. Rose’s heart flipped in a way she hadn’t experienced in a week.

“Then, is that a plan?”

The Doctor broke into a slow, wide grin. “It’s a brilliant plan.”

She rushed back to the console and plucked an old-fashioned silver microphone from somewhere.

“Rise and shine, fam,” she announced. “We’re going on a trip. Get dressed and report to the console room asap.” Then, she added, “And by ‘asap’, I mean now, thank you.”

It was an intercom. Great. Rose thanked the stars the Doctor hadn’t had one of them installed when she’d travelled with him.


	7. Thirteen's Goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _if I could change the currents of our lives  
>  to make the river flow where it's run dry  
> to be a prodigal of father time  
> then I would see you tonight  
> _  
> (One Day by Trading Yesterday)
> 
> [Original YouTube upload of a vintage 2006 Ten/Rose fanvid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcVPh2Nmc7Q)

The Doctor’s team arrived in the console room less than a minute later. Despite her demands to be there ASAP, the Doctor showed surprise.

“That was quick. Have you lot been practicing military drills behind my back to get dressed that fast?”

Yaz looked at the Doctor like she’d grown a second head. “We weren’t even asleep.”

Graham added. “It didn’t seem worth it if you were just going to wake us up in a few hours to help Rose.”

The Doctor frowned. “I haven’t said we’re helping Rose.”

“But… that’s what we’re doing, right?” Ryan said. “Cause you called us back in here.”

“Well, yes -- but I hadn’t said it yet.”

Rose smiled. “How did you know she would change her mind?”

“Technically, we didn’t,” Yaz said. “But you didn’t seem like the type of person to take no for an answer.”

“Ooph, you have no idea,” the Doctor said.

Rose glared. “Shut up.”

“So stubborn. She gets it from her mother,” the Doctor added.

“I will kill you.” Rose pointed at her. “I have no special attachment to your looks this time holding me back.”

The Doctor smugly cocked her head. “Now, who’s lying.”

She flicked one last switch on the console and then placed her hand on a large lever. “Everyone, hold on.”

Rose gripped the edge of the console as tightly as she could as the Doctor brought down the lever. The floor rumbled with a minor tremor and then after a few seconds stopped. Rose braced herself for a new round of turbulence, but the Doctor released the lever and dashed over to the door.

“We’re already there?” Rose asked.

The Doctor pulled the door open and checked outside. “Yes! Bang on.” She looked over her shoulder at Rose. “And you say I’m a bad driver.”

“Yeah, well, apparently that was before you added two thousand years of practice.”

“Fair point.”

Daylight came through the open door. The world beyond was sunny, like the whole week in Texas had been, except this sky leaned towards a rich teal rather than Earth’s light blue.

Rose stepped away from the console. “Are you really here this time?”

The Doctor said, “I was looking into my future last time. I couldn’t see which version of me that I was sending you to. But this is my past, and I guarantee you I’m here, complete with that poofy hair and pretty face you love so much.”

Rose smiled.

The Doctor looked towards the other three. “Sorry, fam. You’ll need to stay back here. Can’t have my past self meeting you too soon.”

“No,” Ryan groaned in disappointment. “I wanted to see your goofy hair.”

“I didn’t say it was goofy.”

Ryan cut in. “Just tell us, is it anything like Grandad’s hair in the 70s?”

“That was 1982,” Graham argued.

“I did not have 70s hair!” The Doctor shot an alarmed look towards Rose. “What have you been telling them?”

Rose laughed and turned back around to say her goodbyes.

She approached Ryan first. “So are you a man who prefers high fives or fist bumps?”

“I’ve been coaching him on the fist bumps,” Graham answered instead.

“I knew how to fist bump,” Ryan said. “You just kept using them wrong.”

“He’s improving,” Graham said.

Rose laughed and gave both Ryan and Graham a fist bump. She moved to Yaz who rolled her eyes at the men but kept with the fist bump trend.

“I’m glad we could help after all,” Yaz said.

“All because of you,” Rose said.

Yaz shrugged. “You would’ve found the gate eventually.”

“I also might not have. So thank you.”

Rose pulled Yaz into a hug. Into her ear, Rose whispered, “Don’t let her push you away.”

When she released her, Yaz met her eyes and murmured, “I won’t.”

Rose walked over towards the door of the Tardis where the Doctor still stood.

“Ready to go home?” the Doctor asked.

“Almost.” Rose took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for what I said -- about you being all the worst parts of yourself.”

The Doctor shrugged it off. “Eh. I sort of deserved it for lying to you all week.”

“Yeah, maybe a little.” Rose smiled when the Doctor did. “Still, it turns out you’ve kept a lot of your good parts too.”

“Thanks.” The Doctor tilted her head towards the door. “Let’s go.”

With one last wave to the others, Rose followed the Doctor out of the Tardis.

* * *

Rose shivered and pulled her shirt sleeves down over her hands. This planet was cooler than Texas had been, though still not quite dead-of-winter cold. The alleyway they’d landed in was still, but the street beyond it bustled with activity of dozens of walkers.

“Where are we?”

“Tebos. By Earth years, it’s 108,007 and they’re still partying like it’s 107,999.” The Doctor pointed at the street. “That’s the Kaolara Market. It’s a bit like a flea market. Every weekend, they block off the street here and vendors set up stalls. There’s always something new to be found.”

Rose nodded. “Were you looking for spare parts?”

The Doctor’s expression became cagey. “Nah, we were here for Donna. She’s such a bargain hunter. Practically begged me to keep coming back here. I definitely do not have a shopping addiction.”

Rose narrowed her eyes.

“Ugh, alright, I’m lying again,” the Doctor said. “I became addicted to haggling for a bit -- but it’s still Donna’s fault! She came on board with a hat box, Rose. _A hat box._ A shopping addiction was inevitable after that.”

Rose stuck her hands in her pockets. “Who’s Donna?”

“Have you not met Donna, yet?” When Rose shook her head, the Doctor frowned. “Sorry about that, in the other timeline you found her before you found me. You’re going to love her, though. She’s brilliant and my best friend and… she slaps harder than your mother, but don’t tell Jackie that. I have a feeling it’d make her competitive.”

Rose grinned. Later, she was so going to ask him what he’d done to make Donna slap him.

She gestured at the street. “So where are you in all that?”

“It should be nearby.” The Doctor strolled to the end of the alley and looked right, looked left, and then pointed. “It’s that one.”

Rose rushed over and pushed in front of the Doctor. She scanned the stalls, but she didn’t see him anywhere.

“Which one is it?”

“Do you see the stall with all the carved figures displayed?”

Rose nodded.

“Keep your eye on it. I’ll be there in about… ninety seconds.”

Rose waited, hands clenched by her sides now and adrenaline coursing through her. She peered this way and that, trying to guess which direction he’d be coming from, trying to spot the spikes of his hair in the crowd, all while staying acutely aware of the stall he would soon be visiting.

She felt a hand grasp her elbow. Then the Doctor leaned over her shoulder and, into her ear, whispered:

“I know my past self. So in case I wait too long to say this again, Rose.... I love you.”

The Doctor’s touch faded, and Rose felt her step away. She took a shaky breath, and then turned to look at the Doctor two thousand years in the future one last time.

The Doctor smiled softly. “Now, go on. Go find me.”

Rose understood now. This was the end -- at least from the Doctor’s perspective. She was never going to see Rose again.

“Goodbye, Doctor.”

The Doctor smiled wider. Rose sent up a silent plea for the Doctor to always be happy and to never be alone. Then, she turned back to the marketplace.

There he was. Exactly where his future self had said he’d be. His brown hair was still spiked with product he’d never admit to. His long brown coat still hung over a brown pinstripe suit. Even his trainers were the same, though the tan was now painted dusty red from this planet’s soil. The Doctor -- her Doctor -- the Doctor that belonged to this version of herself -- was here.

Rose moved one foot forward… and then fell back on her heels.

“I found my bedroom.”

“What?” the Doctor behind her said.

“On the Tardis. I found my bedroom, but it was exactly as I’d left it,” Rose said, not taking her eyes off the Doctor at the stall. “So if I found you in that other timeline, it means I didn’t stay. For some reason I didn’t get to stay.”

She turned around now and met the Doctor’s uncertain eyes.

“But we’ve changed the timeline now, right? This isn’t what you remember because we’ve changed it.”

The Doctor nodded. “This is different, yes.”

“Okay, so maybe this time I can stay?”

The Doctor’s uncertainty transformed instantly. “Oh, Rose Tyler. When I enter the doors of my Tardis, I expect to be hit with years and years of new memories with you.”

Rose shook her head, and then smiled at the Doctor’s responding frown.

“Decades,” she corrected. “Decades and decades of new memories.”

The Doctor lit up in a grin. “Yes, decades and decades.”

Still grinning herself, Rose turned away from the Doctor’s future.

And stepped towards her own.


	8. Ten's Hello

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _so keep breathing cause I'm not leaving you anymore  
>  believe it, hold on to me and never let me go_  
> (Far Away by Nickelback)
> 
> [Original YouTube upload of a vintage 2008 Doctor/Rose fanvid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvow-cn0gKg)

The stream of patrons parted and flowed around Rose as she walked through the marketplace. Unlike her last visit to an alien planet, she didn’t notice the diversity of the population or the design of the buildings surrounding her. She didn’t hear the casual conversations, the sales pitches, or the haggling taking place. She didn’t even notice the cold anymore. All she knew was the Doctor’s face. It was currently turned away from her. She could only see his right ear, his eyelashes, and the corner of his mouth as he spoke to the stall vendor, but it was enough. Her heart thudded in her chest. Her hands ached to reach out for him, but she was still too far away. She didn’t run. In some ignored corner of her mind, she recognized that she didn’t know this planet’s customs or if spontaneous running was considered a punishable offense. But largely it was disbelief that kept her from sprinting into his arms. Disbelief that this was real, that she had found him, that the worst days of her life were about to be over for good.

When she was close enough to hear his voice apart from the crowd, Rose found hers.

“Doctor.”

The Doctor didn’t turn around. He, instead, held up a finger to wait -- probably thinking she was Donna, maybe thinking she was nobody. He continued his conversation with the vendor.

“I’m sorry, I just don’t believe these are hand-carved.”

“I carved them myself.”

“Doctor.”

“That one’s clearly been cut by a laser.”

“A laser directed by my own hand!”

“Doctor.”

“Just a minute,” the Doctor said, finally sparing a glance her way. He returned to the vendor, and then just as quickly spun back around for a second look at her.

“Rose,” he exhaled.

Rose smiled at his familiar voice and his familiar face. “Found you.”

The Doctor didn’t respond. He didn’t seem capable of it. Instead he stared at her, gaping and wide-eyed. He looked overwhelmed, possibly like he’d just witnessed someone trapped in a parallel world do the impossible and return. Rose could relate to the feeling.

She tentatively raised her hand and took the last step to reach him. Her fingers closed around his coat sleeve. The fabric was thick and rough and solid beneath her touch. It was real. He was real.

The Doctor’s hand rose up to meet her outstretched arm. “Rose,” he said again with a little more strength, a little more amazement creeping into the disbelief. 

Rose stared up into his eyes, his gorgeous deep brown eyes.

“Hi.”

His hand squeezed her elbow. The pressure was enough to break the spell, and she leaped into his arms. He caught her and held her tighter than he had in any of her memories.

“You’re _here_ ,” he said against her ear.

“I’m here,” Rose confirmed. “I made it. Oh my god, I can’t believe I finally made it.”

She tried to squirm closer. There wasn’t any remaining distance between them to be eliminated, so she settled for holding on tighter. Her chin was tucked against his neck. His skin was pressed against her lips, and she could smell soap and the chemicals of his hair gel. She had him back! Finally, she was home.

A voice interrupted. “How about a carving to celebrate the happy reunion? Maybe this one: the bad wolf?”

It was the vendor, and the poor attempt at a sales pitch would’ve happily been ignored if not for those last two words. Rose and the Doctor released their hug (though didn’t release each other) and stared at the vendor.

“What is it?” Rose asked.

“It’s a bad wolf.” The vendor held up a carving of something that could be labelled a creature but bore no resemblance to any wolves on Earth. Of course, the carving itself couldn’t matter less. The important part was its name.

Bad Wolf.

“Are you serious right now?” the Doctor said.

“I never joke about my work. The bad wolf is inspired by a myth,” the vendor explained. “No, no! It’s not an evil one. The name’s a misnomer.”

Rose laughed. She turned away, buried her face against the Doctor’s chest, and laughed with relief. She’d been right. She’d chosen to find the Doctor two weeks early, and now she had proof that she’d been right. This was exactly where she was supposed to be.

“Would you like it?” the vendor asked again. “I’ll cut you a good deal.”

Rose pulled back and said, “Sorry, we already have one.”

Enough of the Doctor’s shock had faded for him to chuckle at her remark. Rose grinned up at him and tugged on his arm, leading him away from the stall.

The Doctor’s hand never left her waist as they walked (Rose wasn’t complaining), and he pulled her into the next available alcove where vendors wouldn’t be able to interrupt them. He cupped the side of her face and stared down at her. Rose happily lost herself in his eyes again. She couldn’t believe he was here in front of her. Not a photograph or a projection or a version of him from the wrong timeline -- it was _him_.

With awe still in his voice, the Doctor asked, “What did you do? How are you here?”

That was the third time in a week he’d asked her that, Rose realized. And each time had been so different from the last.

“How much do you remember about Deoliv?” Rose asked.

“Deoliv?” The Doctor frowned. “Who cares about Deoliv right now. How are you here?”

Rose prompted, “When you took me and Jack to see Deoliv, what happened?”

“Nothing,” the Doctor said impatiently. “You and Jack came back with laryngitis because of some concert you insisted on going to.”

Rose nodded. “And you stayed on the Tardis.”

“I had some work to do. What does this matter?”

“Doing what?” Rose said. 

“Just some repairs.”

“What repairs, specifically? Who helped you with them?”

“No one--”

The frown on the Doctor’s face froze in place. His eyes grew distant, and Rose learned the difference between new memories and memories that were unlocked. In the future, the new memories had been intrusive, almost violent: invaders worming their way through the Doctor’s mind. This unlocking was subtleter and quieter, like simply turning on the light to a room you had forgotten existed and rediscovering its contents.

“You were on Deoliv,” the Doctor said in a hushed voice. He refocused on her. “This you. You crossed our timeline and found me there.”

The accusation was barely there -- if it was even there at all -- but Rose still replied, “It’s not like I planned it. That’s just where I landed.”

“With the dimension cannon that Torchwood’s got you using to jump universes,” the Doctor said. “That’s how you found me.”

There might have still been accusations she needed to defend herself from. Rose couldn’t tell. The Doctor’s hand had returned to her face and he was slowly stroking his fingers through her hair. It was a lovely distraction. He could do that for forever and she wouldn’t be tired of it.

“I sent you here?” the Doctor said.

“Almost.” Rose smiled so he wouldn’t immediately panic. “There was a small detour along the way.”

The dematerialization groans of the Tardis cut across the marketplace and ruined Rose’s efforts. The Doctor went rigid with fear and leaned away to look towards the sound.

“It’s not yours,” she said, but the Doctor didn’t hear her.

“That’s not where I parked,” he said.

“I know. It’s not yours.”

Rose tugged on their still clasped hands until she regained his attention.

“What do you mean it’s not mine?” he asked.

“Not yet anyway. It was just my ride here.”

There was only one Doctor in this timeline now. Exactly as it should be, but Rose still felt a pang. She tightened her grip on the Doctor’s hand.

The Doctor stepped back to her. His fear hadn’t faded. “What do you mean ‘yet’? Where did I send you?”

Rose hesitated. “It was the future. Your future.”

“What?!”

She gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s fine. I got here in the end.”

The Doctor pushed his hand through his hair and paced away from her. Rose rushed after him.

“Doctor, it’s okay. Look! I’m here; I made it. Everything’s okay.”

“How far did I send you?”

He stopped walking circles, so Rose did too.

“Pretty sure I can’t tell you that,” she said. The Doctor growled in frustration, and Rose rushed on, “It doesn’t matter. I still made it here.”

“I thought I was sending you straight here, to _me_ ,” the Doctor said. “How did I send you into my future?”

His anger and frustration, the way he emphasized ‘to me’ -- he wanted her here. He wanted it so much, he hated the idea of her being anywhere else, and Rose loved him for it. She loved him so much.

“Technically, they were both your future, so you still got it right.”

She smiled at him again, hoping that he would see now there was no reason to be upset. But the Doctor instead groaned and resumed his pacing.

“That was it. I couldn’t see the details because it was my future! I could only see it was me and just assumed that was enough. How could I be so careless!”

“Doctor!”

He ignored her. Rose rushed to block his path and grabbed his arms to keep him from running off again.

“Stop it, it’s okay. Look at me. I’m here. I’m fine.”

He did look at her. Rose placed her hands on his cheeks to keep his gaze from running off again too. Her thumb traced along his cheekbone -- real this time; she was no longer limited to a photograph. The Doctor didn’t fight her attempts to calm him, physically, but his eyes did. A storm brewed in them: a storm directed at himself.

_It’ll always be my fault._

“It’s not your fault,” Rose said as firmly as she could. “So what if I took a detour to the future? I still made it back. Everything’s okay.”

The Doctor didn’t relax, but the storm eased.

“You were supposed to come right here. There wasn’t supposed to be a detour,” he said.

“I know.” Rose allowed her hand to curl behind him so she could toy with the hair on the nape of his neck. “Luckily, you’re still you in the future and brought me the rest of the way here. So you see? It all worked out.”

The Doctor continued to stare. Rose continued to pet the edge of his hairline. She ran her finger up and noted all the ways the ends of his hair tickled her fingertip. She ran her finger down and marvelled over how soft his hair was. She walled off all thoughts of Texas and 2103 and the future Doctor; she buried the fear and the hurt and the waiting, a full seven days of just waiting without answers. He couldn’t read her thoughts, but she didn’t want him to see the agony of them on her face.

“Rose,” the Doctor sighed, finally letting the tension drop. He pulled her into a hug again, and Rose sent another round of thanks up to the stars.

“We’re okay, now,” she said as much to herself as him. “We’re better than okay.”

The Doctor withdrew only far enough to rest his forehead against Rose’s. Rose reveled in the weight of him, the closeness of him. Nothing was ever going to beat this. She wanted to live in this moment forever.

“I saw them selling love potions out there, but I thought it was full of rubbish.”

Rose turned towards the voice. A white woman, human-looking, stood at the edge of the alcove. She was better dressed for the weather than Rose in her coat, light-weight scarf, and knitted hat. Beneath her hat was long, straight hair so ginger it would likely send the Doctor into a day-long sulk about the unfairness of genetics.

The woman’s eyes stayed on the Doctor as she continued, “Or have you started accosting poor women on the street now?” She turned to Rose. “Be honest, how hard do I need to smack him?”

A smile spread across Rose’s face. “You must be Donna.”

The woman startled. “Yeah. How do you know that?”

“How do you know that?” the Doctor repeated.

“Cause you told me,” Rose started to explain, but then she took another look at the woman. “Hold on, I have met you before. London, 2008, you came over and told me about a bin.”

“Oh my god.” Donna blinked. “That was you! But… how were you in London and now you’re all the way over here? It’s like the year 100,000 now.”

“108,007,” Rose said automatically. “But hold on if you were in London when those little aliens got beamed up, then does that mean--”

She looked at the Doctor. The Doctor glanced between her and Donna, baffled.

“What are you two talking about?” To Rose, he asked, “When did you see Donna in London?”

“The Adipose,” Donna answered for her. “It was after their ship left. Remember? I had to leave the car keys for my mum before we could head off. So I chucked them in a bin and left a message with… sorry, what’s your name?”

The world swayed. Rose clutched the lapel of the Doctor’s coat to confirm again that this was real, that he was real.

“You never told me you spoke to Rose!”

“Rose?” Donna said. “Hold on, do you mean your Rose?”

Rose refocused in time for Donna to turn to her and ask, “You’re Rose Tyler?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

She was surprised Donna knew who she was, but not as surprised as she was to learn the Doctor had been in London at the same time and place that she had.

“I can’t believe you were there,” she said.

Donna smacked the Doctor’s arm and snapped Rose’s attention back to her.

“I can’t believe you let me interrupt you and Rose Tyler!” Donna said.

“Why did you smack me?” the Doctor demanded.

“For making me look like an ass!” Donna turned away from him. “Rose, I am so sorry for interrupting, and I am thrilled that you’re back. This useless stick of alien has been utterly miserable without you.”

“Donna!”

That perked Rose up. “Yeah?”

“Positively morose.” Donna nodded. “You can ask Martha.”

“No, she can’t ask Martha!” the Doctor said. “No one’s calling Martha.”

“Obviously, we’re not calling her now,” Donna said. “You two have a reunion to carry on with, so I will take my cue and make myself scarce.”

She began walking away from them, but the Doctor called after her.

“Wait, where are you going? Donna!”

Donna walked backwards. “Don’t worry. I’ve still got most of the marketplace to explore. I’ll be busy for hours.”

“No, we need to go back to the Tardis.”

“Exactly. Have fun.”

“Donna, stop! I mean all of us.”

Donna couldn’t have looked more disgusted if the Doctor had suddenly vomited cockroaches in front of her.

“I don’t think so! You two can get up to whatever you like, but you’re not including me in it!”

Rose was fairly certain she’d slipped into an alternate universe at this point -- a different alternate universe than the one she’d been living in for the past three years. One where she and the Doctor were a confirmed romantic couple, and sex between them was not only a reality, it was so expected that others openly gossiped about it.

If there was a universe for that, then there must also be a universe out there where she had found the Doctor during an Adipose invasion of London in 2008. Or had it been one of the possibilities in her timeline that she had missed out on?

“Rose isn’t here on holiday!” the Doctor was saying. “She’s only here because the walls between universes are breaking down. We need to get back to the Tardis and find out why. Now, let’s go.”

The Doctor marched out into the marketplace. Rose only followed because the Doctor held her hand, and she’d be damned if she would let him release it. Donna scurried beside them, peppering the Doctor with questions about what was going on. Rose couldn’t tell how much or even if the Doctor answered. She couldn’t seem to focus on much of anything beyond missed opportunities.


	9. Priorities

Rose revived a bit when they reached the Tardis. The soft organic gold walls contradicted by raw, manufactured metal flooring was a welcomed sight. A familiar humming that Rose still couldn’t identify as audible or psychic resumed in the back of her mind. The future Doctor’s Tardis had been so foreign to her that Rose only now realized the humming had been absent there. Rose felt her shoulders relax, and a thin veil of peace fell over her.

The Doctor had dragged her all the way over to the console’s display screen before he released her hand -- or tried to. When Rose felt his fingers loosen, she squeezed harder and kept him trapped in her grip.

“I looked for you in London,” she said. “I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find you.”

“It’s alright,” the Doctor said gently, though still with an underlayer of urgency. “It doesn’t matter. You’re here now.”

It did matter. That Adipose invasion had been months ago. It mattered quite a bit if she could have avoided months of extra searching and timeline crossing.

“Will someone please explain what’s going on?” Donna demanded.

“Rose?” the Doctor redirected. “You know more than I do right now.”

“About?” But then she remembered why the Doctor had dragged them back to the Tardis: walls, universes, breaking down. “Right, um… we don’t know what it is for sure. There’s the convergence that you saw in the timelines, and then in our world, we’ve been seeing stars going out.”

“What stars?” the Doctor asked.

Rose shrugged. “Any of them. All of them. There’s been over two hundred last I heard. Most you can’t see without sophisticated telescopes, but some of them have been pretty close to Earth.”

“And that’s all you know?”

“No. You -- the future you called it a bomb. The end of reality.”

The Doctor frowned as he tried to puzzle this out. “A bomb? A reality bomb? But that could be anything. What did I mean by that?”

“I’m sorry, you saw the Doctor in the future?” Donna asked.

“That’s all you said,” Rose answered the Doctor. “Just, end of reality.”

“Great. That’s not vague or foreboding at all.” The Doctor turned to his screen. “Maybe there’s something new in the timeline readings.”

He was here but not. Or she was here but not. Rose couldn’t tell. The Doctor’s hand was no longer in hers, and a sick emptiness was beginning to fill her chest.

Rose jumped when her phone vibrated. She fished it out of her pocket and checked the caller ID.

“Fuck,” she said under her breath. She answered it with a wince. “I know, I know. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, do you know?” an irritated Mickey said on the other end of the line. “Really? Cause Control just called me asking why your coordinates suddenly shifted, and I didn’t know anything.”

The Doctor registered the phone in her hand. “Did someone call you? Who are you talking to?”

“I’m sorry,” Rose said to Mickey. “The trip happened too fast. I didn’t get to call.”

“What trip?” Mickey asked. “One minute you’re on Earth in 2103, and the next you’re halfway across the universe, god knows when.”

“It’s a planet called Tebos. Year 108,007.”

But Mickey continued with his berating. “Oh, and before Control called, Jackie called all upset saying the Doctor had done something and how she was going to kill him and that I could either help or get out of the way. You know the last time she was that angry? When she thought I was the reason you went missing for a year.”

Rose rubbed her eyes. “I should have called her back, too. I’m sorry.”

“Stop being sorry, Rose. Just tell me what the hell is going on.”

The Doctor caught her attention again and very loudly mouthed. “Who are you talking to?”

“It’s Mickey,” Rose finally told him.

The Doctor’s face lit up so brightly, it stunned her.

“Mickey! Brilliant!”

He sprinted the two feet to her and yanked the phone from her hand. “Perfect timing, Mickey! Are you at Torchwood, right now? I want to know what updated readings you have on this timeline convergence -- oh, and whatever information you have on stars disappearing also, thanks.”

Without pausing for the response, the Doctor turned on the speaker setting and left the phone on the console while he began bringing up the Tardis’s own timeline readings on his screen.

“Doctor?” was Mickey’s only response to this onslaught of information.

“I know! Long time, no speak. Still doing well?”

Rose couldn’t tell if she was glaring. She didn’t even know if she was angry. She couldn’t tell what she was feeling. It seemed to be some combination of frustration and disappointment and numb, and all of it seemed to be fuel for that creeping emptiness.

Mickey clearly had no such problem identifying his feelings. Now that he was speaking to the Doctor, he directed his anger there.

“So you finally showed up, huh?” Mickey said. “Good, then maybe you can explain what you did to upset Rose so much that she called Jackie.”

The good cheer vanished from the Doctor’s face. He straightened up from the console screen and looked at Rose.

“It was nothing,” Rose answered before he could ask.

“When did you call Jackie?”

“Earlier, but it doesn’t matter.”

“Earlier when?”

“A whole whopping ninety minutes ago,” Mickey cut in. (An hour ago, Rose converted in her head.) “And Rose was crying too hard to explain, so now I’m on my way to help keep Jackie out of Control so she doesn’t steal the dimension cannon to come kill you.”

The Doctor’s expression grew more and more calm during Mickey’s answer. Rose knew instinctively that he was retreating, that his emotions were such a mess that he had no choice but to carefully pack them away so as not to alarm her.

“Rose,” he said evenly. “What crying phone call to Jackie is he talking about?”

“My mum’s overreacting.”

“Rose.”

“It had nothing to do with you, so leave it!” Rose snapped.

The calm was packed away too, and the Doctor’s expression became blank.

Rose snatched back her phone and took Mickey off speaker.

“Tell my mum I’m fine, and I’ll call her again tomorrow.”

“Rose, what is going on?”

“I can’t right now. But I’m fine, and I’ll explain everything later.” She hung up before he could say anything else.

The Doctor stared at her. Rose stared back.

“We need Torchwood’s data to work out what this reality bomb is.”

“He’s not even at Torchwood right now. You heard him.”

“Fine.” The Doctor leaned back over his screen and began flicking switches. “The Tardis readings offer more detail anyway.”

“Doctor,” Donna said.

Rose’s hands shook. Did that count as an emotion? No, it was a side effect. It had only been an hour since she’d called her mum. That meant her body thought it was nearly two in the morning. Maybe she was tired.

“Doctor,” Donna repeated.

“Now, what exactly is converging?” the Doctor said. He twisted a dial.

“DOCTOR!!”

“What?” The Doctor stood up. “Donna, I’m right here.”

“Oh, are you?” Donna said. “Then, why did I have to shout like you were fifty miles away before you heard me?”

Even exhausted, Rose knew that was a trapped question. The Doctor recognized it too. He slipped his hands in his pockets and squared himself with Donna.

“Sorry. What do you need?”

“I was just wondering when exactly this reality bomb will go off? Is it right this second or tomorrow?”

“It’s a reality bomb,” the Doctor said with more emotion than he’d shown in minutes. “We have no idea when it could happen.”

“Two weeks,” Rose said.

Donna and the Doctor both looked at her.

“It happens in two weeks,” Rose repeated.

Donna nodded. “Two weeks. Great. Well, that sounds like it gives us plenty of time to figure this out, then.”

The Doctor protested. “Two weeks does not sound like plenty of time for something called a _reality bomb_.”

“Honestly, you’re the most brilliant man I’ve ever met, but you’re also denser than a stack of bricks.” Donna huffed. “Now, since reality isn’t ending today, I’m going shopping. Right there, is Rose Tyler.” Donna pointed. “The woman you’ve been grieving since we met - not trapped in a parallel world, just standing two feet away from you. So maybe you should stop focusing on something that’s still two weeks away and start focusing on her.”

Plucking a pen up from somewhere, Donna walked the long way around the console towards Rose. She fished a stack of post-it notes from her pocket and wrote something down.

“This is my number. If you need back-up, call me.” She handed the post-it to Rose, and then gently touched her arm. “Will you be alright?”

Rose nodded. “Thanks.”

Donna smiled kindly. “Good luck.”

Rose watched Donna leave the Tardis. She didn’t really know the woman yet, but she already felt adoration and gratitude towards her -- or at least she would just as soon as she could feel anything again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _why do you do this to me  
>  why do you do this so easily  
> you make it hard to smile because you make it hard to breathe  
> why do you do this to me?_  
> (Why by Secondhand Serenade)
> 
> [Vintage Ten/Rose fanvid reuploaded to YouTube here](https://youtu.be/IMmuVh405rA)


	10. Falling Apart Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut is at the end of this chapter. It's very skimmable if that's not your thing. If it is your thing, fair warning, it is not very heated. It's much closer to Feelings with Nakedness than traditional fanfic smut.
> 
>  _when time is not on our side  
>  all we have is now for the rest of our lives  
> _  
> (Learn You Inside Out by Lifehouse)
> 
> [Vintage Ten/Rose fanvid can still be streamed here at the creator's site](http://www.neuralcluster.net/index.php/streaming-videos/leviathan/23-streamed/leviathan/45-doctor-who-learn-you-inside-out) (may need to scroll to the bottom of the page)

A long silence stretched in Donna’s absence.

Without looking at her, the Doctor said, “What time did I send you to?”

Rose walked over to the jump seat and sat down. “I’m not going to tell you about your future.”

Now, the Doctor faced her. “You didn’t call Jackie while you were on Deoliv. Which means ninety minutes ago, you were with that other me, and I want to know what happened.”

“It was an hour for me. There’s a one and half times conversion between universes,” Rose said.

“An hour, then,” the Doctor said, sounding irritated with her semantics. “Tell me what happened an hour ago.”

“We had an argument.”

“About what?”

“Nothing that matters here,” Rose said. 

The Doctor marched over. “You’re here. Your mother is potentially on her way here to kill me and Mickey didn’t sound like he was too far behind, so it matters. It matters quite a bit.”

Rose shook her head at the situation she’d ended up in. “None of this would’ve happened if I had just found you months ago when I was in London. I was right there!”

She squeezed her eyes shut at the escaping tears. She wouldn’t cry again. The single round of painkillers she’d taken a mere hour ago had only dulled, not eliminated, her headache. She couldn’t bear to cry again.

“Rose.” The Doctor’s voice had softened significantly which did not help her battle not to cry. “I’m sorry. You’re overwhelmed and tired. You’ve crossed universes and three timelines today; you probably don’t even know which way’s up.”

Rose’s eyes flew open. He believed it had all happened in a day. She had let him believe it had only been a day by carefully omitting all information to the contrary. Anger flared within her, and she regretted her decision to protect him.

The Doctor’s hand brushed over her shoulder. “I should let you rest.”

“It’s been a week.”

“What has?”

Rose steeled herself and dragged her gaze up from the grated flooring. “I didn’t see you on Deoliv today. That happened a week ago.”

“What? How was it a week ago?”

Rules of time travel warred with the suffering the Doctor’s searching eyes put her through. She wanted to lash out with the truth, about how his future self had left her waiting for a week, how that Doctor had hidden from her and lied to her, horribly and continually. Rose was angry and wanted the Doctor to hurt for it, but the fucking laws of time said he couldn’t know too much about his future.

And, of course, this him hadn’t done any of that, not yet. And the future Doctor had already apologized, twice, and then had let Rose decide where to go, had agreed with that decision without argument, and had dropped her off here. She had taken her home. There was nothing left to punish the Doctor for, and Rose wasn’t even angry after all.

She was scared. The name for her feelings had escaped her earlier, but now she latched onto it. The word was scared. Absolutely fucking terrified that all of this was temporary and that at any moment she would be shunted back to the parallel world or to Texas or to anywhere that wasn’t this Tardis with this Doctor in this timeline.

She was scared.

The Doctor squatted down in front of her feet. He placed his hand over where hers gripped the edge of the jumpseat. It was automatic for Rose to flip her hand over and curl her fingers around his instead.

Gently, he asked, “Rose, what happened? How did it take me a week to get you back here?”

It was difficult to avoid his eyes when he was in her line of sight to the floor, but Rose made an admirable go of it.

“It just took us a bit to find each other, that’s all.”

The Doctor looked pained. He was still focused on that future, still searching for answers like it mattered - but it didn’t anymore. Rose had moved on, and there was something else now that mattered much, much more.

Rose stood up. She used their clasped hands to pull him out of the console room.

“Come on.”

The Doctor followed readily enough, but he shot questions at her, one after the other, as she led him deeper into the Tardis. Where were they going? What was she doing? Would she please explain what had happened? All asked with varying shades of care or concern.

Rose didn’t explain. She led him through the same route she had taken earlier that evening on a different Tardis. The final turn onto her hallway was not so dramatic on this Tardis where all the walls were golden, but it was just as welcoming.

Her bedroom door was exactly the same, of course. The Doctor halted at the threshold like he was afraid to go inside. Maybe he hadn’t been inside since she’d left. Maybe her room hadn’t even been here since she’d left. Whatever qualms he had, Rose was unaffected. She marched inside already knowing what she’d find: the same bedroom she had left in London three years ago, the same bedroom she had left an hour ago on a Tardis two thousand years into the future.

Her bedroom needed to change.

She started by removing her jacket and tossing it on the couch. Her eyes landed on that dresser drawer still wedged on a sock, and she moved to fix it. Then, a better idea crossed her mind. She opened the drawer and tossed all of her socks onto the floor.

“What… what are you doing?” the Doctor said. The question was now laced with alarm.

“Fixing it.”

All she could do with the top of her dresser was rearrange the order of her jewelry boxes, but that was unsatisfying. Her closet seemed more promising. She opened the door, pulled the first clothing she saw off the rack, and threw them to the floor.

“Rose.”

The Doctor stepped inside now. He watched as she threw out another armful of shirts.

“It needs to be changed.”

“And why does it need to be changed like this?”

Rose didn’t have the stamina to dismantle her entire closet. So she settled for removing the last set of clothes she could reach from the doorway and returned to her bedroom. Quickly, she discovered that shoes were a hindrance to navigating piles of loose clothing, so she sat down on the rug to remove them.

“Because I’m here.” One shoe was tossed past her dresser into the corner. “And I need to prove it.”

The last shoe flew over the bed and would’ve smacked the Doctor on the way down if he’d had slower reflexes.

“Right. Okay, I’m beginning to understand now.”

No, he didn’t. He didn’t understand anything. Rose shoved herself back up to her feet.

“You’re not allowed to send me away again.” Adrenaline thundered through her veins. “I’m staying with you forever, understand me? For the rest of my life.”

The Doctor’s face fell blank again. His mouth moved like he would argue, but Rose wasn’t having it.

“And you don’t get to tell me forever isn’t possible, or make decisions based on what if’s or maybes. This is my life, Doctor. It is my choice, and I’m choosing to stay. I will always choose to stay!”

The Doctor still didn’t get it. Oh, he understood he shouldn’t argue at the moment, but Rose could read on his face that he was still crafting denials and excuses and contingency plans and whatever else he needed to make himself feel better about the fact that she was human and he was not. He still didn’t understand anything.

Rose took a breath. “I saw you in the future, and you were fine. In fact, you were better than that. You were happy and wonderful, and you had friends travelling with you who were just as wonderful. You weren’t alone. And I am so glad about that -- relieved even because it means I could leave right now and you would be fine.”

Storm clouds brewed.

“I would not be fine,” the Doctor said.

“In two thousand years you would be.”

He didn’t react to finally hearing how far into the future he had sent her. Lightning was now crackling, and he took a furious step towards her.

“I would not be fine _right now_ ,” he said. “And what’s this about you leaving again? Why would you say that?”

Rose was unphased by his anger. “Because that’s what happened before. I found my bedroom in the future and it was exactly the same. Two thousand years and it hadn’t been touched.”

“But that could have been anything!” the Doctor protested. “The Tardis could’ve pulled a copy of the bedroom you remembered out of your head. It might not have been your actual room.”

It had not been a copy, but the point wasn’t worth arguing.

“The important thing is you were fine in the future.”

“How is that even remotely important to this conversation?” the Doctor shouted.

“Because it means it doesn’t matter what happens now if you’ll be happy either way.”

The Doctor took another step forward. “What happens now very much matters. I don’t know what my future self told you, Rose--”

“She said you love me,” Rose said. “And she changed the timeline by dropping me off here because whatever happens here doesn’t affect her future - but you’re right, it does affect the here and now. It does affect _us_. So if you push me away again because you’re scared or stubborn or whatever it is that keeps making you put up a wall between us, then that doesn’t do anything for the future! It just hurts us now, and I don’t-- I don’t want that. I want us to be happy. I want to stay here with you and be happy.”

Tears blurred her eyes. The storm had dissipated but beyond that Rose couldn’t read the Doctor’s expression. She was so close to breaking, she couldn’t even see him.

“Please, Doctor, can’t we just be happy?”

“Oh, Rose.”

The words were more breath than sound: too insubstantial for Rose to lean on for support. Her sob cracked her in half and ripped open her chest. An abyss rushed in to swallow her whole.

Suddenly, there were arms around her. The Doctor, solid and real again, pulled her to him, murmuring, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

The sobs were so deep, they left her without sound until Rose had to gasp and force air back into lungs that burned. She clung to the Doctor as she fell apart. He wasn’t enough to put her back together, but he was still a lifeline she refused to give up. 

The Doctor murmured to her, soft sounds muffling her from the rest of the world. Eventually, slowly, the sounds coalesced into words again.

“I’m so sorry, Rose,” the Doctor was saying. He pressed a kiss onto the side of her head. “Of course, you can stay. You can always stay.”

“Forever,” Rose said with a raw throat.

“Yes, forever. I want you to stay forever.”

Rose found enough strength to lean back. “You can’t send me away again.”

“I promise.” He kissed her temple and then kissed her forehead. “I promise, Rose, I will never send you away again.”

And then he kissed her: his lips pressed against hers. It lasted a second, just another gesture of reassurance, and she had kissed him much more thoroughly seven days ago on Deoliv -- but it was the first time he had kissed her.

He pulled back. Rose waited, her tears suddenly halted. The Doctor cupped her cheek. He buried his fingers in her hair and wiped his thumb against her tear tracks, but he didn’t kiss her again. His eyes searched hers, still worried and scared. But he didn’t kiss her.

Well, fuck that. She was emotionally beaten to hell, but she wasn’t fragile.

Rose kissed him, much more forcefully and with much less care than she had on Deoliv. The Doctor responded without hesitation. His lips parted and slid against hers; his tongue darted in to lick her own. One of his arms curled around her waist and pulled her closer. His other hand stayed on her face, still wiping away her tears.

 _Finally finally finally finally_ , her heart beated out inside her chest. This was happening. She was back and he was real and this was happening.

She pressed into him. The Doctor’s coat -- usually removed as soon as they were back in the Tardis -- pushed uncomfortably against her chest. As much as she loved the idea that he had been unwilling to let go of her hand for the two seconds it would’ve taken to remove it, the coat very much had to go. She pushed it off his shoulders.

The Doctor finished the job. He tossed his coat over to the loveseat where Rose’s jacket laid, and Rose’s heart leapt. Then, he was back and kissing her fiercely.

That was better. He wasn’t so needlessly bulky. She could press closer to him, but it was still not close enough. It was his suit jacket, now, that impeded her, and his tie proved to be even more infuriating. It did its job too well and prevented her from slipping anything more than the very tips of her fingers beneath his collar. Rose huffed.

“A leather jacket and a jumper would be much easier to take off right now,” she muttered.

“You don’t know that.”

“It’s an educated guess.”

Only proving her point about the inconvenience of dressing in full business attire every day, the Doctor smoothly slipped his hand beneath her t-shirt and ran his palm over her side.

“Wool,” he said in a tone that made the word ‘wool’ sound far sexier than it had any right to be, “creates static, and static is the mortal enemy of hair everywhere. Why do you think I always kept mine shaved last time?”

“You were trying to look edgy.”

The Doctor bit Rose’s lip for that, and Rose giggled.

The Doctor pulled back and smiled at her. Not teasing or alluring or even smugly. He just smiled. Rose allowed the pause, realizing what he must have: that she was smiling too. That she could smile again.

“I’m really glad I’m home,” she whispered.

The Doctor’s smile widened. “Me too.”

Rose kissed him again. They walked unevenly towards her bed. Rose hit the edge first. As she sat down, she said, “Wait.”

She took a breath, and looked up at the Doctor. “Is this okay, that we’re doing this?”

“Are you asking about the efficacy and safety of interspecies intercourse or the potentially more complicated emotional fallout of us having sex?” the Doctor replied.

Rose felt a ripple of nerves. “Both?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said and leaned down to kiss her. “To both.”

Relief washed over her. “Good.”

She got to work on the Doctor’s suit jacket, but the small buttons were difficult to navigate at this angle. They were made all the more difficult when the Doctor’s hand pushed higher up her shirt to massage her breasts.

Frustrated now for multiple reasons, Rose stood up again. She pulled off her t-shirt, and the Doctor -- finally, _finally_ \-- removed his jacket and tie. Rose marvelled. If she had known that’s all it would’ve taken to get him to do that, she would’ve removed her shirt immediately. She didn’t even like that shirt. It had been a spare bought to survive Texas and her week from hell. That shirt could be consumed by the void for all she cared.

At least, she noted as she ran her hands over his chest, the Doctor wasn’t the type to wear a t-shirt beneath his button-down. Through the thin dress shirt fabric, Rose could feel both of his heartbeats and the faint radiated warmth of his skin.

“Do we need to worry about birth control?”

“Birth control?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m on the pill but that’s designed for humans.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. “Do you have any idea how many different ways there are to conceive in this universe? On Zoter, you can impregnate someone just from breathing too closely. I’m on contraceptives for just about any scenario out there.”

He frowned.

“Except for an accelerated progenation from a tissue sample. I should really look into that one.”

The Doctor got that look he always had when he’d found a new puzzle to solve. Rose distracted him by untucking his shirt tails from his trousers, trailing her hands over his stomach, and kissing him. It successfully brought the Doctor’s attention back to her, and he pushed her onto the bed again. When she scooted back to reach her pillows, he followed.

“And,” he said between kisses to her neck, “we don’t have to worry about sexually transmitted diseases: not as a rule of thumb and certainly not right now. I still have the Tardis’s antiviral system turned up from when Jack was here.”

“You were worried about Jack getting STDs?”

Rose had been much more successful undoing the Doctor’s shirt buttons than she had been with his suit. She took advantage of the new freedom to explore his skin as she pushed him back on his knees so the Doctor could pull his arms free and send his shirt to the floor alongside every other article of clothing that resided in her room.

Rose raised her eyebrow. “I think out of everyone in the universe Jack Harkness would be the most educated on how to have intergalactic safe sex.”

The Doctor scowled. “I wasn’t worried about his health.” He ducked back down to lick and suck on a place just below her jaw. “I was worried about him being a bad influence.”

On her, Rose mentally finished. The Doctor had been worried Jack would inspire her to pick up random men or people or aliens or whoever to sleep with. It was one part baffling and one part endearing mixed with three parts infuriating.

“If you were so worried about bad influences, you know what the solution should’ve been?” Rose forced the Doctor to look at her. “Make a damn move yourself.”

The challenge, however retroactive, flipped a switch between them. The Doctor’s hands roamed her body with more urgency, now. He pulled off Rose’s bra, and soon after, her jeans. Rose removed her own socks, though, because the Doctor seemed likely to forget them. When she pointed out the Doctor still had shoes on, he wrenched his feet from them without untying laces which Rose knew must have hurt. Later, she’d remind him that he didn’t get bonus points for making himself suffer.

He also didn’t get points for being impatient. The Doctor removed her underwear before she could convince him to shed his trousers. She was about to voice her complaint when the Doctor dropped down between her legs.

“Oh fuck,” she said as the Doctor’s tongue ran up her clit. All protests of unfairness evaporated. She laid back and allowed the Doctor to continue stating his case on possessing ‘superior senses’ and an exceptionally talented mouth. Rose squirmed against him and the Doctor shifted with her until they found the right pattern and angle to make Rose’s breath quicken and muscles tense.

“Oh god,” she groaned. “I am never complaining again about you licking everything in sight, even if you do get us thrown in jail.”

The Doctor chuckled against her, and a strong dose of affection joined the endorphins rushing through Rose. In another minute, she orgasmed with a string of whimpers and shudders. Slowly, the Doctor withdrew. He placed kisses on her thighs, on her hips, on her ribs, until he had climbed back up to lie beside her. He placed one final kiss against her neck.

Rose rolled over and snuggled into him. She ran her fingers over his bare chest.

“You’re still dressed,” she finally criticized.

“Excuse me, I am more accurately half naked.” 

The Doctor kissed her. Rose hummed into it and slid her hand up around his neck.

“That means you’re still half dressed, and that does not fit into my plans,” she murmured.

“I promise,” the Doctor said, “you can do whatever you want to me with as few or as many clothes as you‘d like, but I’m fairly certain it’ll have to wait until you’ve slept. You look exhausted.”

He was right. Without the adrenaline of either sex or interdimensional reunions, Rose had left exhausted in the rearview mirror. Now, it was a bone-deep tired she’d never felt before. It reminded her that it wasn’t just the lack of sleep tonight that was affecting her. It was three years of sleeping poorly.

“I can be both exhausted and irritated that you’re only half naked.”

The Doctor chuckled. “You are incredibly stubborn.”

Rose grinned. “You know, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that from you this week. It’s not even the second.”

“Glad we have our constants.”

“Yeah,” Rose said with a laugh. Then, she slipped her hand down to toy with his waistband. “So, can I still touch you?”

She could tell it wasn’t the position of her hand that made it impossible for him to say no. It was because she asked, because she wanted to. It was because as much as she loved his brown eyes this go around, he had always seemed even more susceptible to her own.

The Doctor rewarded her with a warm kiss. Then, he rose from the bed. She sat up and gave him a teasing grin as he undid his trousers. It prompted him to put on his most disgustingly smug expression in his arsenal, the same level of smug that made her hand itch to slap him. Then, he dialed it up by waggling his eyebrows while he finished undressing.

“Stop it!” Rose laughed.

He didn’t stop, and Rose giggled harder as he climbed back into bed.

“You’re so vain,” Rose said as he kissed her. “That’s the first thing I tell people when they ask, you know: that you’re completely, horribly vain.”

“Maybe if you didn’t worship my looks so much, then I wouldn’t have reason to be so vain.”

The Doctor kissed her again. He’d be trying to use kissing as a way to win arguments from now on, Rose knew. He always cheated at arguments. But now it was her turn to learn what new things she could do to wipe the smugness from his face.

She slid her hand down to touch him. She didn’t expect immediately useful results. While she could see he had a penis and that it looked about how she would expect a penis to look, she still didn’t know what he would like. And unfortunately, she didn’t have the energy to explore as thoroughly as she wanted to.

But just touching him was enough to make the Doctor sigh. He shifted to lay on his side next to her and kissed her deeply. His whole body relaxed. He seemed content enough just to be this close to her.

It squeezed Rose’s heart. Maybe he had been ‘morose’ like Donna had said. Maybe he’d missed her just as sharply as she’d missed him. And maybe… maybe he had even missed her before she’d been ripped from his side -- back on those days when they had fought, when they hadn’t said everything they could have or should have, those days when she had missed him even though he had been standing right next to her.

The Doctor was either easy to please or Rose was terrible at reading his nonverbal cues.

She kissed the underside of his jaw. “You can tell me what to do, you know. I take constructive criticism.”

The Doctor pressed his forehead to hers and said simply, “Exist.”

Rose closed her eyes. God, she was too tired to process this strong of an emotion again. She’d processed too many emotions today, already. The excess at this point was liable to spill over into tears, and she had absolutely done enough crying for the day.

She ducked her head and kissed his clavicle. “Sappy lies are still lies.”

The Doctor chuckled and acquiesced. He guided her hand, the way she had guided him. He continued keeping her close: touching her, kissing her. Soon his breaths quickened, became punctuated by grunts. He stopped being able to maintain his kisses, so Rose moved to kissing his face and his neck. Still, he tried to push closer to her, even when it was physically impossible to do so.

He came with a sharp catch of his breath. Rose felt the release on her hand and grinned in giddy delight. She grinned harder when the Doctor groaned and rested his forehead against hers once more.

“See?” she said while wiping her hand on her bedspread. “Sometimes I listen to you.”

The Doctor captured her lips again in a fierce kiss. “Have I told you how glad I am that you’re home?”

Her giddiness expanded tenfold hearing him calling the Tardis her home. “Not enough yet.”

Punctuating each word with another kiss, the Doctor said, “I am so very, very glad you’re home.”

“Me too.” Rose grinned.

She wanted to stay curled up next to him until the reality of it faded from marvelous to normal. By her estimate, it would take years. However, if she stayed in bed like this, she’d be asleep in minutes, so she forced herself to move. The Doctor protested this decision even when she told him she’d be right back and he could see quite clearly that she was grabbing a pair of pajamas and heading into the loo. In fact, when he saw she was just getting cleaned up, he switched his half-serious protests to a pathetically exaggerated whining that made Rose roll her eyes even as she couldn’t fight back her smile.

She washed up without showering (showering was for people who weren’t dead on their feet), dressed, and took a fresh round of painkillers so that maybe her crying-induced headache would fade instead of worsen while she slept.

The Doctor smiled at her, wide and adoring, when she returned.

“Shut up.”

His smile didn’t fade. To Rose’s disappointment, he’d gotten dressed too, though not in pajamas. Instead, he’d slipped back into his trousers and dress shirt -- buttoned, though at least untucked. His feet were adorably bare. 

He left the bed and strided over. He swept her into a hug, and Rose once again delighted in being this close to him. He smelled like soap which implied he’d washed up too. Rose wondered if he’d gone all the way to his bedroom to do that or if the Tardis had added a spare bath to this hall since she’d been gone.

Then, the Doctor took a deep, shaky breath, and Rose knew without seeing it that his smile was gone.

“You know, you scared the living daylights out of me on Deoliv,” he said.

Rose gave him a squeeze before leaning back. “Because you saw that we’d be separated?”

“And because you were on your own, because you had been on your own so long that you’d learned how to read and navigate timelines. Because I couldn’t take you back myself, because I couldn’t do anything to change what had happened.” The Doctor sighed. “All of it scared me to death.”

Rose tugged on his collar. “I tried to hide as much as I could. I didn’t want you to know what had happened.”

The Doctor held her waist tighter. “You didn’t want me to even help you.”

“There’s helping me and then there’s hurting you with things you can’t do anything about.”

“Rose,” the Doctor said firmly. “Always choose me helping you. Because even on the infinitesimally small chance you’re right and I can’t do anything to fix it, I will still try.”

Rose flashed back to Texas in 2103 again. She tried to fight the memories back, but the Doctor noticed this time.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Rose.”

“You already fixed it.”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. “It’s the future again, isn’t it? What did I do?”

“You--” Rose took a deep breath. “You didn’t tell me who you were.”

The Doctor slid his arms down to clasp her hands. He squeezed them and then turned her palms forward so he could thread their fingers together. Rose was grateful. She adored hugging him, but somehow holding his hands felt better right now.

“You had changed, obviously,” Rose continued. “So I didn’t recognize you. You told me you were someone else. It took you a week before you….” She shook her head. “Actually, you never told me. One of your friends finally told me the truth after I’d been searching for you for a week.”

“Give me the date,” the Doctor said.

“Doctor.”

“I’m not against fighting myself, Rose. Just tell me the date.”

“You’re not crossing your own timeline.”

“It’s not like I haven’t done it before,” the Doctor said. “Granted, it was never on purpose, but there’s a first time for everything.”

Rose shook her head. “You didn’t do it to hurt me. You thought you were protecting the timeline.”

“How?” the Doctor demanded. “How was lying to you protecting anything? Especially since I’m the one who brought you here.”

“There was a different timeline,” Rose said. “One where I didn’t find you on Deoliv. I found you later, apparently, and that’s what you remembered. You didn’t realize the timeline had changed.”

Her answer confused the Doctor further. Rose had reached the end of what she could tell him, though, so she rose up on her toes and kissed him.

“I’m here now. You’ve already fixed it.”

Begrudgingly, the Doctor said, “I suppose I can’t fault the end result.”

“No, you can’t.” Rose kissed him again, and then led him back to her bed.

“But just know, while you sleep, I will be plotting my revenge. I’ll lay out booby-traps -- vicious ones -- all around the Tardis for my future self in places that I’ll never see coming.”

Ignoring this ridiculous plan, Rose pulled the sheets free from beneath her pillows. Then stopped and turned back to him. “You are staying, right?”

The Doctor’s eyes turned gentle. He guided her into bed, and then, before tucking her in, climbed in beside her. Rose smiled.

He said, “Donna was not exaggerating about being occupied with that marketplace for hours. I’m all yours.”

“Good.” Rose scooting in to lie on his chest, sacrificing comfort for proximity. “I heard she hits harder than my mum.”

The Doctor grumbled, “I refuse to answer that one way or another.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell my mum.”

The Doctor hummed. A few minutes later, when Rose was nearly asleep, the Doctor asked in a curious voice, “Earlier, why did you use ‘she’ for my future self?”

Rose smiled. Without opening her eyes, she replied, “That is for me to know and for you to find out.”


	11. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POV change to Thirteen
> 
>  _what kind of world do you want? think anything  
>  let's start at the start, build a masterpiece  
> be careful what you wish for  
> history starts now_  
> (World by Five for Fighting)  
> [Vintage Nine/Rose fanvid reuploaded here to YouTube](https://youtu.be/ip919XX_QmI)

The Doctor hung back in the Tebos alleyway, careful to stay out of sight. She watched Rose walk out into the marketplace. She watched the expression of disbelief wash over her younger self’s face when he saw her and how Rose jumped into his arms. She saw them cling to each other, knowing their worlds had narrowed to just include the two of them. This knowledge was based on old memories, of course. The Doctor couldn’t remember this new reunion yet, but she could imagine it. The shock and terror of seeing Rose where she wasn’t supposed to be, the cutting relief at seeing Rose at all, the defiant joy of having Rose in her arms again.

So much better than being struck down by a Dalek before she could even touch Rose.

As Rose and the brown-haired Doctor left the market stall and disappeared out of sight, the Doctor whispered a single command for her younger self.

“Don’t mess this up.”

She turned away from the Tebos marketplace and walked back to her Tardis. As expected, the moment her hand touched the door, the new and revised memories flooded in. There were so many of them. They came too fast for the Doctor to identify individually, so she didn’t even try. There would be plenty of time later to separate the memories and examine them: open them like gifts on Christmas morning and learn all these new things about herself.

But first she needed to confirm all was still right. When the deluge ended, the Doctor flicked through the index to locate the memory of Davros and his reality bomb, of the Daleks and twenty-seven planets going missing.

She already knew they stopped the reality bomb. Her continued existence and the sheer amount of memories labeled ‘after’ confirmed she hadn’t changed too much.

But had she changed enough?

No Dalek blast to her chest. No human/Time Lord metacrisis. A few extra explosions than she’d remembered previously, but at the end of the day, the Daleks were defeated, Earth was returned home, and when they’d finished dropping everyone off, both Rose and Donna were still by her side. Things were very much right. She had changed enough.

Oh, what’s that memory?

Dropping everyone off after returning the Earth included taking Jackie Tyler home. She had still crossed universes with Mickey to ensure Rose was alright.

(Later, when she could relive the memory in full, the Doctor would remember that Jackie had been much angrier this time around, and that it had been one hundred percent, entirely this version of herself’s fault. But right now, the Doctor was focused on a different revelation.)

Her younger self had managed one last trip into that parallel world before the walls re-closed. This should’ve been Rose and Jackie’s final goodbye, because Rose had chosen to stay with the Doctor (“I will always choose to stay,” she’d said). But something had interrupted them -- someone in fact.

The Doctor opened her eyes. “Oh, brilliant,” she said and rushed inside the Tardis.

The fam looked up when she entered.

“Everything alright?” Graham asked.

“Outstanding actually, thanks for asking.”

At the console, she entered a set of newly remembered coordinates and began the dematerialization sequence.

“Is Rose with you now in the past?” Yaz asked.

“Yes. The timelines have been reunited and everything is _almost_ how it should be.” The Doctor prepped the pandimensional stabilizer she would soon need. “We just have one more stop to make.”

They landed on a little asteroid out in the far deserts of the universe. The time and place was perfect for what she’d need, which of course is why it had showed up in her memories to begin with. The absolute best part was she hadn’t even had to waste time searching for the place herself! Sometimes paradoxes worked in her favor.

“Now, let’s see if I can get the timing right.” The Doctor flipped on the telepathic scan to find the other Tardis. She needed to temporarily sync their timelines, and she needed to do it carefully.

“Yes! Oh, I’m a genius. Not to brag, of course,” she tossed to the others. “Just stating a fact.”

“How about you tell us what you’re doing so we can form our own judgement?” Yaz said.

“I’m doing this.” The Doctor secured the video feed and powered on the projections. A birds-eye view of the Tardis -- her old Tardis (her old, old, old Tardis?) -- lit up the room. The camera angle (well, psychic transmission angle) was positioned above the doorway and pointed down and into the room. She could see her past self standing by his terribly small display screen (oi, the youth and their love of eyestrain). Donna looked to be doing her best to stay out of the way, while Rose stood on the opposite end of the console with Jackie.

“Hey, that’s Rose,” Graham said. “Is that video from now or the past?”

“Both.” The Doctor frowned at the feed. “No sound. Hold on.”

The Doctor widened the connection between the two Tardises and played a round of hot-and-cold with the signal strength. She knew Rose was trying to say goodbye to her mother, and she knew that Jackie was fighting it and reaching for any shred of hope that she’d at least hear from her daughter again. The Doctor could hear the words crystal clear in her brand-new memory, but if she didn’t get the audio up, they wouldn’t be able to hear her.

“You just dragged an entire planet through space! How can you say a phone call is impossible?”

“Mum, stop.”

“Jackie, I’m sorry,” said the Doctor’s past self. Ooph, she’d gotten here just in time. That terrible promise her past self had made to never send Rose away was warring with the vehement belief that Jackie should not have to lose her daughter like this.

_Let’s make that promise a little easier to keep._

The Doctor picked up her microphone and faced the video feed.

“Pardon this interruption,” she said. “But you lot seem to be facing a problem in need of a solution.”

All four startled.

“Who’s that?” Donna asked.

“Who are you?” the Doctor’s past self called out louder.

“I’m the solution,” the Doctor said. “If you turn on your screen, you’ll see what I mean.”

From behind her, Ryan asked, “Which one’s you?”

The Doctor mimed for him to be quiet, but Yaz pointed at the screen and answered.

“Pretty sure she’s that one.”

“Aw, that’s cheesy boy band hair.”

“Were you hoping for a mullet or something?”

“Yeah, that would’ve been good.”

“Shush!” The Doctor shouted. She’d nearly pulled a muscle trying to wave them off, but Yaz and Ryan had kept right on going.

They finally stopped their conversation.

“I said no talking through this,” the Doctor said.

Yaz shook her head. “You said nothing of the sort.”

The Doctor held up the microphone. “When my hand is on the button, it’s very clearly implied.”

Her hand was still on the button.

The Doctor ignored her oversight, and pointed to all three of her friends. “Don’t say a word.”

Back on the video feed, Jackie was staring around the Tardis with deep suspicion.

“You always said this thing was alive, but you didn’t say it used voices.”

“That’s not the ship, Mum.” Rose looked up at the ceiling and said louder, “What are you guys doing here?”

“Actually, we’re not,” the Doctor explained. “We’re still in our universe, but that puts us in the perfect position to help you. Now, Doctor, I believe I told you to turn on your screen. I have some coordinates to send you.”

“Why? What are you doing?” her past self said without moving.

“Just turn on your screen.” The Doctor released the button on the microphone and rolled her eyes at her friends. “Ugh, I don’t remember being that obstinate.”

“Right, cause you’re the most easy-going person we know,” Graham answered.

“Exactly!”

All three of them quirked their eyebrows at her in a way the Doctor did not appreciate.

“If I ignore the sarcasm, then it doesn’t exist.” The Doctor pointed at Graham. “You meant it, now. No take-backs.”

The Tardis alerted her that the connection had been established.

“Yes! Good.” The Doctor transmitted the coordinates of the asteroid over to her past self to read and use. (And thus completing the paradox. Oh, she loved time travel!)

“But -- you can’t be doing that,” her past self sputtered. Louder, he repeated, “You can’t do that. It’s impossible.”

The Doctor picked up the microphone again. “It’s only impossible if we don’t have the right tools.”

“Which we don’t have,” her past self argued.

“There’s two Tardises between us: one on each side of the breach. That’s exactly what we need.”

“We don’t have an anchor.”

“I just sent you the coordinates!”

“That’s an asteroid! It’s never going to work.”

“What won’t work?” Rose cut in. She’d directed the question to the past Doctor. “What is she trying to do?”

The Doctor’s memory echoed in live time with the present. She could feel her past self’s struggle. He didn’t want to dodge the question, but he also didn’t want to give Rose false hope. 

But the hope wouldn’t be false. The Doctor in the present answered instead. 

“We’re building a bridge. The walls will close around it, but the bridge will stay open. You’ll be able to travel freely between universes.”

Shock filled Rose’s face. “Are you serious? Is she serious?” she asked her Doctor.

The Doctor’s past self ran his hand over his face in irritation. “Yes, but it isn’t possible without an anchor. Someplace stable and continuous, unaffected by time. The only place in the universe that could’ve worked was destroyed.”

“It doesn’t have to be _the_ anchor,” the Doctor said over the microphone. “We just need to be close enough, and this asteroid fits the bill. It’s stable, untouched, and it will continue to drift undisturbed in this remote corner of space for the next 2.5 million years. That’s more than enough time.”

“I won’t have to say goodbye?” Rose said.

“Not permanently. It’ll be just like when you lived at the Powell Estate,” the Doctor said. “But we’re down to only two minutes before the walls close, so come on old me, let’s get a move on! Target the coordinates with the pandimensional--”

“I know what to do!” her past self interrupted.

The Doctor set down the microphone. “Strongly hates being told what to do -- I admit, I still have that trait.”

Synced through time, the two Doctors moved around the console, adjusting controls and fixing readings, in order to stabilize the pathway between the two universes. In the past, Rose helped the Doctor, moving where he told her and holding the levers he pointed to. In the present, the Doctor remembered not only this moment, but every moment still to come of teaching Rose the controls of the Tardis and how to fly the ship. There were hundreds of them. She smiled over the memories while she set the anchor for this end of the bridge on the asteroid. On the other side of the breach, the past Doctor anchored the parallel Earth.

The walls between the universes closed. The bridge held.

“It worked,” her past self said in shock.

The Doctor was sorely tempted to say ‘I told you so’ -- even picked up the mic to do it -- but Rose replied first.

“We have a bridge?”

“We have a bridge,” the past Doctor confirmed.

“We can come back anytime we want?”

“Anytime.”

“Oh my god.”

Rose grinned and the Doctor didn’t need the video or her new, shiny memories to see the full effect. Rose Tyler’s grin was already deeply burned into her mind.

“Mum, did you hear that? He’s fixed it. The Doctor’s fixed it. We can still visit! This isn’t goodbye after all.”

Rose enveloped her mother in a hug, still grinning. Jackie looked relieved even as she began berating about “all the hell you both put me through these past five minutes, and this whole time you just had to push a damn button!”

The Doctor considered warning them that the trips to the parallel universe would be limited to just that Earth and Rose’s timeline -- no parallel time or space travel -- but eh, her past self could handle explaining the details.

Yaz walked over to stand beside her.

“Okay. I guess you can be a genius for this one.”

The Doctor grinned, both at the compliment and the opportunity. “I told you so.”

Yaz rolled her eyes, but she smiled too so the Doctor opted to ignore the eye roll.

Over the intercom, Rose’s voice returned, much louder than before.

“Thank you, Doctor!”

Rose was back at the console, using it for balance. She had risen on her toes like being an inch higher would carry her voice farther. Her eyes were focused unerringly at the exact spot the psychic transmission was viewing her from like she knew that’s where the Doctor in the present would be.

The Doctor looked into her brown eyes (shaded blue in the holographic display, but again, the Doctor didn’t need the display to imagine Rose Tyler’s eyes), and picked up the mic. “Remember Rose, decades and decades.”

Rose’s happiness illuminated her brighter than the sun could ever hope to. With a nod, she turned her gaze to her own Doctor and repeated her promise.

“Decades and decades.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE OCTOBER 12, 2020: Since I am writing sequels out of order, you can find the complete chronology of this series (w/ links back to AO3) over [on this static Tumblr page](https://amtrak12.tumblr.com/changethecurrents) I created. 
> 
> *
> 
> THE END! Gah.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reads this fic!! I greatly appreciate it.  
> Thank you to my Tumblr friends and followers who either cheered me on or allowed me to shout endlessly into the void for the past month or both! I love you guys.  
> Thank you to my husband who will not be reading this note but who did read my entire fic (minus the smut LOL) and also allowed me shout endlessly into the void for the past month.  
> And finally, thank you to everyone who ever created, commented, lurked, or otherwise participated on the Time & Chips LiveJournal community back in the day. There was so many wonderful fan creations for me to consume and I still reread those fics even 12+ years later. You guys definitely spoiled me for all future fandoms! And you also inspired me to try to create my own works. It took me over a decade, but I finally feel like I can match the quality produced by that community. :)
> 
> If you want to continue chatting nostalgia or Doctor Who in general, leave a comment or come find me on Tumblr (username: amtrak12). (also if you're mourning some old 2006-2008 DW fan vids, hmu. I recovered at least 100 so far from my old college harddrives and might have the vid you're looking for.)
> 
> Thank you again!


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